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LIFE 



/JO 



OF A^^,^^ 



MARTIN VAN BTJREN, 



BY 



THOMAS ]\r E L H 1 N E Y 



PITTSBURGH: 

PRINTED BY J. T. 5HRY0CK, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, 29 Fli'TH ST. PITTSBURGH. 

1853. 



^\H 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the tear 1853, 

By THOMAS M'ELHINEY, 

IN THE Clerks Office of the District Court of the Western District 

OF Pennsylvania. 



LIFE OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 



TnE Ancestors of Martin Van Buren, on the side of both 
father and mother, were among the early emigrants from Holland, 
to that part of this Continent now forming the State of New York. 
The family have always resided iii the old settlement, or town of 
Kinderhook, in Columbia county, on the east bank of the Hudson 
river. Abraham Van Buren, the father of the President, was a 
farmer in moderate circumstances, an upright and an intelligent 
man, whose virtuous conduct and amiable temper, enabled him (as 
such qualities are apt to do) to pass through a long life, almost 
without contention or controversy. His mother was a woman 
remarkable for her good sense and agreeable manners. She 
was twice married, Mr. Van Buren being her second husband. 
They both attained advanced ages; the father died in 1814, and 
the mother in 1818. The mother of Martin Van Buren was a 
distant relative of his father. Martin Van Buren is the oldest son 
of these parents ; he had two full brothers, and two full sisters. 

Martin Van Buren was born at Kinderhook, December 5, lY82. 
At an early age he exhibited sucli strong indications of a superior 
intellect, that his family determined to educate him for the bar. 
After acquiring the rudiments of an English education, he became 
a student in the Actidem}'-, in the town in which he was born. Ho 
there made a good deal of progress in the various branches of a 
primary English education, and acquired some knowledge of Latin. 
He left the Academy at fourteen years of age, to begin the study of 
the law. At that early period ho exhibited a .strong desire for 
extempore speaking and written ooraposition. Even at that age, 
he possessed a capacity for observing and understanding public 
events, and the dispositions and characters of those around liim; 
which rendered it certain to all correct observers, that, with proper 
opportunities, he would become one of the greatest statesmen and 
politicians of the age. I have no doubt that his powers of observ- 
ing the dispositions and characters of men, were more acute during 
that period of his life, between fourteen and twenty four, than at 



4 

any subsequent period; for this most satisfactory reason, tliat long 
continued and extensive reading has the effect of stuffing the mind, 
and blunting the acuteness of its perceptions with regard to the 
private dispositions and motives of men. 

The fondness of Mr. Van Buren for extempore speaking and 
■written composition, doubtless arose in part from an ambitious 
desire of display. It so happens, that tlie ability to make 
speeches, and to frame writtten compositions, is created in most 
minds, if not in all minds, by extensive reading, particularly law 
reading. It is more than probable that Mr. Van Buren, for the 
first time in his life, felt conscious of his ability to make extempore 
speeches, and to frame literary compositions, and was anxious to 
display his newly acquired powers. Let no man who possesses a 
clear, acute and powerful mind, imagine that the ability to frame 
literary compositions in prose, and to make speeches, is beyond his 
reach; he may rely upon it, that by extensive reading, and a little 
practice, he can acquire one or both of these capacities. This fact, 
however, is not generally known; and the great mass of mankind 
imagine that there is something unusual and extraordinary in the 
faculties of a man who can make a speech of one or two hours in 
length. The experience of the profession of the law has shown, 
that a man who cannot acquire that ability, by extensive law read- 
ing, is an exception to the general rule. 

It is almost impossible to convince some men that they can 
acquire this capacity. They take a calm and philosophical view of 
their faculties, and they cannot imagine how it is possible to pro- 
duce so singular a revolution in their minds. They are apt to 
imagine that they are exceptions to the rule ; perhaps they have 
found, after repeated trials, that it is impossible for them to express 
their sentiments with fulness and force, either in speaking or wri- 
ting. Let no man, who feels conscious of a power of thinking and 
reasoning in his own mind, ever doubt that by pursuing the course 
indicated, he can acquire an ability to lay his thoughts and reason- 
ings, in a becoming shape, before the world, either by speaking or 
writing. He will not only acquire a power of speaking and writing, 
but will finally acquire a grace and beauty of style, of which he 
thought his faculties entirely incapable. 

Men who require much time for reflection, cannot see how it is 
possible to collect and arrange their thoughts for an extempore 
speech. I have known m(>n wh(> would reflect for a week or a month 



on one subject, to make approved orators, and to be regarded by the 
multitude as possessing remarkable natural faculties for extempore 
speaking, and who could not, before they had read law for several 
years, have made a coherent speech of five minutes in length. 
Any man who has reasoning powers, possessing any ordinary degree 
of activity, no matter whether his capacity is great or small, can, 
by the course indicated, acquire the capacity I have mentioned. A 
great statesman has said — "A man must be boi*n a poet, but must 
study to be an orator." 

Young persons, when they first acquire the powers of extempore 
speaking, and of penning written compositions, are much more 
likely to undertake the task of instructing their fellow citizens, 
than at any subsequent period of their lives. There can be no 
doubt that Mr. Van Buren was always an useful instructer ; and if 
his object was ambitious display alone, one might well excuse such 
a wish, on the part of a young man, to lay before an admiring 
world the workings of so extraordinary an intellect. Fourteen 
years may appear to be a very early period at which to commence 
the study of the law ; yet when we consider the fact, that a great 
mind, like that of Mr. Van Buren, is so well developed at fourteen, 
as to be capable of understanding the law, and then consider the 
vast extent of the law, it would be difficult to fix on a more 
appropriate time at which to commence. It requires at least ten 
years of judicious and diligent reading, to become a really good 
lawyer ; and twenty years judicious and diligent reading, to become 
a thoroughly read lawyer. It is all true, that Mr. Van Buren might 
have occupied several years more of his life, with profit and 
advantage, in acquiring general scientific and historical knowledge; 
that knowledge, however, can be acquired equally well, and with 
more convenience, during the intervals of a professional life. The 
course pursued by Mr. Van Buren had this decided advantage; 
that, at an early period in life, he was a well read lawyer, and enti- 
tled to the confidence of the community as such. The period of 
study required of Mr. Van Buren was seven years. 

Mr. Van Buren commenced the study of the law in the office of 
Francis Sylvester, Esq. a respectable lawyer of Kinderhook. Law 
students were frequently employed, at that time, in the manage- 
ment of cases, in courts held by justices of the peace. The great 
ability exhibited by Mr. Van Buren as a reasonor, caused him to 
be employed very often in trials in those courts. 



6 

Ilis father was a whig in the Revohition, and a democrat during 
the administration of John Adams. Martin Van Buren formed his 
most intimate connexions with persons of the same political party. 
This was abundantly sufficient to give his mind a democratic bias, 
up to fourteen or fifteen years of age. The democratic party was 
then in a small minority, in the town and county in which he was 
born. At fifteen years of age, such an intellect as that of Mr. 
Van Buren would have emancipated him from all other influences, 
except the dictates of his own mind. It is more than probable 
that, even at that early period in life, he took a self-possessed, 
comprehensive and statesman-like view of the political arena, and 
clearly foresaw the rise and progress of the democratic party. That 
he did so before he attained seventeen years of age, I feel very 
confident; and I feel equally confident, that his comprehensive and 
statesman-like views, and the reflective character of his mind, and 
his calmness and self-possession, enabled him to foresee, and to 
anticipate, and to picture to his mind the highest success he ever 
met with, at the bar, or as a politician ; and I think it very probable, 
that from the start, he kept his eye steadily on the Presidency, as 
the ultimatum of his ambition, and the crowning glory of his hopes 
of fame. He showed by his anxiety for a re-nomination and re- 
election, in 1844, how high a value he placed on that position, and 
how ardently he desired to wear the purple for as long a time as 
the most illustrious of his predecessors. 

When Mr. Van Buren was a young man, tlie people generally 
really selected, to hold the highest stations, the men who were most 
remarkable for ability and integrity; and what could be more nat- 
ural, than that a young man of an ardent and ambitious nature, 
conscious that he possessed an intellect of the highest order, should 
anticipate that, by industry and good management, he might attain^ 
and probably would attain to the highest ofiice in the republic, and 
send his name down to posterity, covered with a glory like that 
which surrounds the names of Marcus Aurelius and Julian. His 
ambitious mind, and ardent imagination, would draw glowing pic- 
tures of the applauses which he would receive from his countrymen 
and the world, during life, and of the positions which he would 
occupy on the pages of some future Plutarch or Gibbon. 

Some of the friends of Mr. Van Buren claim for him a disinter- 
ested, self-sacrificing spirit as a politician, to which, I am persuaded, 
he cannot lay any just claim. Great exertions are said to have 



been made, by those friends who were most likely to have influence 
with him, to withdraw him from the support of the democratic 
party, because they regarded his support of that party as inimical 
to his professional and political success; and to unite him to 
the federal party, as afiording a much fairer prospect of success, 
both professionally and politically. Mr. Van Buren is said to have 
devoted himself to the support of the principles of the democratic 
party, notwithstanding, with a moral heroism worthy of ancient 
Rome. We shall examine the justice of this claim. 

It is very probable that he chose to unite with the democratic 
party from conviction; yet it is manifest, that between 1796 (at 
which period he was fourteen years of age) and 1800, when John 
Adams was defeated by Jefferson, he clearly foresaw the triumphant 
success of the democratic party. During that period Mr. Van 
Buren, although a minor, frequently attended democratic meetings; 
and at eighteen years of age was selected to attend a convention 
of delegates, to nominate a candidate for the legislature. On sev- 
eral other occasions, during his minority, he received similar ap- 
pointments from his democratic fellow citizens ; in fact, he appears 
to have been at that time an active working member of the party. 

Mr. Van Buren's political course through life, has demonstrated 
to my mind, that he does not possess the moral heroism necessary to 
seek or incur the risk of political martyrdom. Could he have seen 
no other way to professional and political success, except by uniting 
with the federalists, it would be impossible to convince me that he 
would not have adopted that course. Although the great mass of 
the people were probably republican in their principles, the instincts 
of a large majority of them were strongly conservative; and those 
instincts were only overcome in the minds of the people by the 
prestige which the French Revolution, and the glorious victories of 
the French republican generals, gave to the democratic, infidel and 
social doctrines of her philosophers; which, unhappily for the 
country, were extensively adopted by the politicians and people of 
those days. The democratic party sided with France, in the contest 
which she was waging with England, at that time. The federalists 
took the English side of the question. 

The causes which I have mentioned, gave so great an impulse to 
the democratic party, that they succeeded in expelling the federal- 
ists from power. It is a subject well worthy of the consideration 
of the philosopher and the statesman, to observe the effects produced 



8 

on independent nations by the examples of one another. The 
example of the American Revolution produced the great French 
Revolution, which first followed that event. We then observe the 
victories of the French republican generals giving such an impulse 
to the democratic party in the United States, as to enable that 
party completely to overwhelm their federal adversaries. Finally, 
the singular alacrity with which our citizens volunteered to serve 
as soldiers in Mexico, and the brilliant victories which they gained 
over the Mexicans, gave so strong an impulse to republican doc- 
trines, that it overthrew the French Monarchy in 1848. The 
conduct of our citizens, during the Mexican war, was the remote, 
if not the immediate cause of nearly all the late revolutions in 
Europe, at least of those revolutions which made movements to- 
wards popular self-government. 

The philosophers of the French Revolution were infidels, and 
believed in the perfectibility of man ; a doctrine utterly inconsistent 
with the christian religion, and, as the history of the world has 
clearly shown, both before and since that period, utterly inconsist- 
ent with human nature. With the most unbounded professions of 
liberty, fraternity, and brotherhood, they gave us a practical exam- 
ple of the most horrid tyranny, treachery and cruelty ever exhibited 
by civilized men. I very much question, whether a statesman 
possessing the practical good sense and worldly wisdom of Mr. 
Van Buren, ever really believed in the perfectibility of man. Al- 
though many good christians belonged to the democratic party, it 
must be admitted, that a large portion of the leaders were infidels ; 
and it is a fact well worthy of note, that this very infidelity, which 
they supposed removed all prejudices from their minds, and enabled 
them to form unbiassed judgments with regard to the workings of 
human nature, both morally and politically, misled them most 
grossly on those subjects. 

Whatever may be thought of the measures of the federalists, 
and of the measures of the democrats, no discriminating mind 
can read the political speculations of tlie great founders of the two 
parties, without observing how immeasurably the federalists excelled 
the democrats in knowledge of the world and in knowledge of hu- 
man nature. The federalists did not believe in the perfectibility of 
man; and no well informed and safe statesman, with the experience 
of the last seventy years before him, will ever for a moment seri- 
ously entertain so silly a doctrine. That men arc capable of g;i'eat 





improvement, both morally and politically, I fervently hope and 
confidently believe; but improvement and perfectibility are very 
difterent matters. 

It is curious to contrast the writings of Paine "with a work by a 
French traveller in the United States — De Toc(|ucville. It is wor- 
thy of remark, that the minds of Paine and De Tocqueville are of 
similar calibre ; they both possess the same kind of philosophic and 
logical reasoning powers. De Tocqueville was a most acute and 
accurate observer of the state of society, both morally and politi- 
cally, in the United States, and of the natures of men; he, however, 
does not possess the capacity of a statesman, and his views on 
government and on public policy are neither profound nor just. 
Paine predicted, with the most enthusiastic benevolence, that the 
people, wheii left free to choose their representatives by universal 
suffrage, Avould always select the most able and upright men for high 
places. De Tocqueville, in travelling through the United States, 
about fifty years afterwards, declared that he found everywhere 
men of superior intellect and high characters, but that they were 
systematically excluded from high places by the people, and prece- 
dence given to knaves and simpletons ; because such men, when 
placed in high positions, do not excite the envy of their fellow 
citizens. The result shows how completely the founders of the 
democratic party were mistaken as to the course which the great 
mass of the people would pursue, when entrusted with the elective 
franchise, and with the power of selecting nearly all their officers. 

De Tocqueville remarks with great truth, that whatever may be 
the tendencies of our institutions, to bring forward great men, is 
not one of them. For several years after the Revolution our gov- 
ernment worked well, both in theory and in practice, so far as 
bringing great men forward was concerned, f The great men of the 
present day, however, might well exclaim to those who preach the 
doctrine of t\u\ infallibility of the people, in the language of. some 
Indians to whom blankets were promised by a faithless agent — "Ah^ 
sir, your words warm our hearts, but not our backs." 

I think it proltable, that as a whole, Mr. Van Buren preferred 
the doctines of the democratic party to the doctrines of the federal 
party; but that he agreed with the democratic i)ai'ty in all their 
doctrines, is not at ail prol)able; this, however, would be no just 
disparagement to Mr. Van Buren as a party man, or as a sound and 
orthodox democrat; neitiier would it afford any just ground to 



10 

question his sincerity. A little philosophic reflection, one would 
naturally suppose, ought to be sufficient to satisfy all thinking minds 
of the justice of this remark; for no two minds, that really think 
and reason for themselves, unbiassed by the opinions of others, ever 
think and reason exactly alike on any question ; they may come to 
precisely similar conclusions on one question, or on many questions, 
but if they really think and reason for themselves, they invariably 
reach those conclusions by a somewhat different process of reason- 
ing. It may be almost impossible to find a man who, on all 
occasions, literally thinks and reasons for himself, wholly unbiassed 
by the opinions of others ; but on political questions we certainly 
have vast numbers of people who think and reason for themselves 
unbiassed by the opinions of others, to an extent to which they 
do not venture to give utterance. It may be necessary for party 
purposes, and for the purpose of carrying some great measures, to 
require candidates and political leaders to comply with the leading 
doctrines of the party; this, however, might be done, and yet they 
might be indulged in a much more ample liberty of speech and of 
action than at present. 

De Tocqueville talks a good deal about the tyranny of public 
opinion in the United States. According to his allegation, on those 
subjects on which there is a decided and well known popular bias, if 
our citizens express opinions at all, they are so framed that a stran. 
ger would suppose that the minds of the whole community were 
formed in one mould. He alleges, however, that when they find 
themselves in the presence of a person who is not likely to expose 
their sentiments, they express very different opinions. It is true, 
that the great political parties abuse each other with much violence ; 
but the members of those parties do not venture to discuss the 
measures of their own parties, or the characters of the political 
leaders of their own parties, with becoming freedom. 

We should make an effort to get rid of this most disgraceful 
tyranny. It prevents the advancement of political science and 
knowledge. A very ample latitude ought to be allowed in conver. 
sation, and in written and printed discussions. In their private 
intercourse with their fellow citizens, the people ought to be allowed 
to discuss, with entire freedom, public measures and the characters 
of public men; and an indulgence of those liberties ought never to 
be visited by expulsion from the party, in any instance,°or exclusion 
from the nominations of the party, except where it is evident the 



11 

individual will not support the men and measures of the party. 
Unless the liberties which I have suggested should be allowed, we 
virtually lose the value of our great and cultivated intellects. If 
such men do not express their real sentiments, we not only lose the 
value of their learning and ability, but instead of being useful 
instructors to the people, they use their powers and acquirements 
for the purposes of misleading and deceiving them, greatly to then- 
injury, and to the detriment of public morality. There might be 
some wisdom in silencing knaves and simpletons; indeed, it would 
tend greatly to the good order of society if that could be done, in 
the newspapers and in public meetings. That class of men, how- 
ever, evidently figure, in overwhelming numbers, in the newspapers 
and in public meetings, at the present day. 

Unless public attention is drawn to the subject, the people will 
not readily perceive how utterly valueless the highest Tntellectual 
powers, even when thoroughly cultivated, may become to the pub- 
lic, when their possessors, instead of employing those powers and 
acquirements for the purposes of instructing and enlightening the 
community, only employ them for the purposes of framing hypo- 
critical opinions and sentiments, which they suppose to be in unison 
with the popular clamors of their party, or in unison with the opin- 
ions and wishes of som^e other power, from whom they hope to 
obtain support or favors. In reading the speeches of many of our 
public men, they leave an impression, in fact, a feeling of distress 
on my mind, as though hypocrisy were riding all their thoughts like 
a night-mare. One fact has often struck my attention, that, not- 
withstanding the violence with which parties administer personiiil 
abuse to the candidates of the adverse party, the stump orators 
often, and the political journals almost always, confine themselves to 
falsehoods, although true statements could be made, and are within 
the knowledge of those editors and orators, with regard to the 
private characters of most of those candidates, which would be 
much more effectual in destroying their chances of success, than 
the falsehoods they so freely use. There is a reason for this course 
which may not appear at first to the naked eye. Those orators and 
editors, almost always expect to be candidates themselves, and they 
feel conscious that their own characters would not stand the scrutiny 
of truth. So they really appear to have come to a tacit understan- 
ding with one another, to avoid making true charges; well knowing, 
that if they were to do so, rctaliaxion would soon sweep themselves 



12 

from the political stage. I think it very prohable, that this prac- 
tice does not exist in some parts of the United States, particularly 
in our large cities. 

The editors in our large cities, are seldom candidates for offices ; 
and those circumstances may serve, in some measure, to account 
for the difference. I venture to say, that if a man of really pure 
character, and high qualifications, were to be selected as the candi- 
date of either party, he would be assailed with far more violence 
than the veriest vagabond ; and he might consider himself fortunate 
if many of those who ought to defend him on such occasions, did 
not secretly enjoy those attacks. When people find that such 
charges are generally false, they conclude that it is most prudent 
to disbelieve the whole of them. The abuse is entirely ineffectual ; 
except for the purpose of raising smoke, by which the characters of 
the leading politicians are concealed from the public vieAv. There is 
no question, that ^Ir. Van Buren's activity as a politician during his 
minority, was much stimulated by a desire to ingratiate himself 
Y.-ith what he clearly foresaw would be the great popular party of 
the country. Mr. Van Buren passed the last year of his studies for 
admission to the bar, in the office of William P. Van Ness, in the 
city of New York. Mr. Van Ness was a native of Columbia county 
but at that time an eminent member of the bar, in the city of New 
York, and a prominent leader of the Democratic party. In this 
situation, Mr. Yan Buren had a good opportunity for improvement, 
of which, it is scarcely necessary to add, his industry and ability 
enabled him to make a good use. 

Mr. Yan Ness, was a warm friend of Col. Aaron Burr, then 
Vice President of the United States; and in the controversy which 
arose after the Presidential election, between the friends of the 
President and the friends of the A^'ice President, Mr. Van Ness 
espoused the cause of Col. Burr, and sustained him with zeal and 
ability. While in the office of this gentleman, Mr. Van Buren 
attracted the attention of Col. Burr, who was induced by the in- 
stincts and impulses of a noble and generous nature, to use every 
reasonable effort to gain his good opinion. He was doubtless aware 
of the great ability of the young lawyer, and felt for him the noble 
and generous warmth of a kindred spirit. It is also more than 
probable he was not insensible to the policy of securing the friend- 
ship of so promising a young man. 

The chnractor of Col. Burr is very little understood by the world. 



13 

The quarrel of bis friends with the friends of Mr. Jefferson finally 
turned the whole organization of the democratic party against him; 
the general hostility of the federal party was much aggravated by 
his unfortunate duel with Gen. Hamilton; finally, his attempt to 
raise an expedition for the conquest of Mexico, (which was regarded 
by the great mass of the nation as treason,) drew on him the de- 
nunciations of all parties. When we add to those causes of offence 
a private vice, which he carried to a most lamentable and provoking 
extent, we need not be surprised if few have been found willing to in- 
cur the danger of public odium by doing justice to his good qualities. 
As a soldier no one could excel him in enterprising bravery; 
he united with a most ardent ambition a noble pride and generosity 
of soul, such as seldom fall to the lot of man. In private life his 
kindness and generosity were admirable. His slight regard for 
moral principles, however, and his habit of surrounding himself with 
scamps and vagabonds, rendered him a very unsafe and dangerous 
statesman. Yet it is impossible for a discriminating mind to avoid 
admiring his noble and generous qualities as a man, and the manly 
fortitude with which he bore his misfortunes. Were it not for his 
deficiency in moral principles he would have possessed greatness of 
soul in the highest degree. Incorruptible integrity is, however, to 
my mind, an essential ingredient in true greatness of soul. The 
warmth, ardor, kindness and generosity of Col. Burr's nature are 
very evident in his private letters; his thoughts literally breathe; 
they cannot fail to inspire the reader, who has a discriminating 
mind and a generous heart, with a feeling of love and kindness 
for the man. 

It was my intention to pass over the great social vice of Col. Burr, 
without further notice ; but, on reflection, I have concluded that the 
reuder would not form a correct idea of his character, without some 
additional c<">mraents. He descended from a noble fiiraily, inher- 
ited a fortune, and was educated among the aristocracy of his day. 
Public opinion, among the young men of the aristocracy, in nearly 
every country in Europe, and in our own country, stimulated them 
with a species of chivalrous desire to distinguish themselves by the 
seduction of young and beautiful women. We have already had 
occasion to notice the remarkably sensitive pride and ambition of 
Col. Burr ; we have also had occasion to notice his warm and strong 
passions. Now, when we consider that he possessed a very graceful 
and a very handsome person, eminently calculated to inspire the 



14 

passion of love in the breasts of women, and also possessed talents 
and acquirements of the highest order, united to the most fascina- 
ting wit and agreeable manners, and withal enjoyed worldly success 
and prosperity of the most attractive character, ought we to be 
surprised that many of the more frail and beautiful of the sister- 
hood surrendered their hearts to one so attractive, and frequently 
conferred on him the last favor? 

Before we condemn Col. Burr too harshly, for his indulgences in 
that way, let us deliberately inquire how many young officers of the 
army, in the enjoyment of health, and strength, and worldly pros- 
perity, would have wholly resisted such temptations. It is very 
evident that his physical and mental desires in that way, were of 
the warmest and strongest character. His mind evidently gloated 
with delight over the recollection of such enjoyments, and over the 
anticipation of such enjoyments; and he has left us indubitable 
evidence that his successes and enjoyments in that way afforded a 
high degree of gratification to his pride and his ambition, as well 
as to the warmth and generosity of his heart. The candid reader, 
although he cannot avoid condemning such immoral sentiments and 
aspirations, will be obliged to confess that there is nothing so very 
unnatural in such feelings. 

It is said that he managed to retain the devoted love of his vic- 
tims through life. How he managed that is a mystery to me ; 
perhaps he managed to persuade them that he loved them with the 
most intense affection, and Avould marry them if it were in his 
power to do so. One thing I do know; that women entertain 
feelings of the most intense and dangerously revengeful hatred 
towards men that they have loved and who have declined to marry 
them. Perhaps if they had granted the last favor, it might have 
mollified their feelings in that way ; of that, however, I entertain 
great doubts. We have authentic accounts of many examples, in 
which women have taken the most vindictive and bloody vengeance 
on ardently beloved seducers. 

Nearly all men and women labor under a great delusion, with 
regard to the effect of disappointed love. A man scarcely ever 
forgives a woman who has disappointed him in that way, and women 
still less frequently forgive men who have disappointed them in love. 
Yet a woman will indulge in self-loving dreams of kindness and affec- 
tion for those she has disappointed, vainly and delusively imagining 
that they still entertain feelings of admiration and afiection for her; 



15 

and a man -will entertain similar feelings and thoughts towards the 
sweethearts that have loved him, and that he has disappointed. Oh, 
simpletons! if you have a just regard for your safety, never place 
yourselves in the power of either man or woman that you have dis- 
appointed in that way. Such delusive feelings and thoughts are 
very natural to the human mind and heart, and probably few people, 
if any, would ever think otherwise, unless taught by experience or 
enlightened by the information of those better informed on the 
subject. 

I am inclined to think that Col. Burr's victims were gene- 
rally of a very frail character; and I suspect it was this vice which 
undermined his moral principles, and brought him into the society 
of scamps and vagabonds, who, notwithstanding his great ability as 
a lawyer and politician, continued to cheat him in private matters 
to the close of his life ; a result which shows clearly, that on this, 
his weak point, his mind was incapable of perceiving its true inter- 
ests. How much more amiable and admirable would have been the 
character of Col. Burr, had he avoided this vice and the society 
and errors into which it naturally led him. It was the cause of his 
disappointment in not obtaining the great object of his ambition — 
the Presidency. For Gen. Hamilton and the federalists would 
probably have elevated him to that station, had they not been de- 
terred from doing so by the scamps and vagabonds who surrounded 
him. Gen. Hamilton urged the federalists to vote for Jefferson 
instead of Burr, for that reason. 

Had he been faithful and true to his Theodosla, or some other 
equally virtuous and excellent wife, how much more charming a 
theme her devoted love and affection for him would have been for 
the historian and biographer, and for the contemplation of the lover, 
than the ardent attachments of his polluted mistresses — and how 
different would have been the effect on his own worldly prosperity 
and happiness? In the first place, there is scarcely a doubt but that 
he would have become President, and to a man of his ambitions' 
mind such an elevation would have afforded the highest gratification. 
In the next place, the fortune which he Inherited and his great suc- 
cess at the bar, would have enabled him to accumulate a large fortune. 
He would probably have lived to a good old age, surrounded by all 
the comforts which wealth and dignity of station could bestow. 
But that is not all; it would scarcely be possible to find in a gene- 
ration a man so well calculated to excite the love and admiration of 



16 

mankind, and of womankind also, by his many amiable and excellent 
qualities, in private life. 

He raised his reputation to the highest pitch for political ability 
and sagacity, by the manner in which he conducted the political con- 
test which elevated Mr. Jefferson to the Presidency and himself to 
the Vice Presidency. As a soldier he has acquired the reputation 
of being an admirable disciplinarian, and he appears to have intro- 
duced the discipline of the army into the democratic party. One 
of his doctrines appears to have been, that a small number of lead- 
ers should think and reason for the masses; and that the masses of 
the party should be required to obey the organized leaders of the 
party, without consideration or reflection. If Col Burr and the 
great democratic leaders of his day were really the founders of the 
strict party discipline, which we have witnessed for so many years 
in the Republic, I think we might be very safe in concluding, that 
if they had a fault, that fault was not too great a reUance upon the 
intelligence of the people. 

The force of party discipline, was strongly exemplified in 1844 
by the Democratic party, in the nomination of a man for the Pres- 
idency of mediocrity intellect, who could not have procured twenty 
delegates to the National Convention, had his claims been brought 
before the people, previous to the nomination by that convention. 
It is very probable that he could not have procured a solitary dele- 
gate to that convention ; and yet the party not only submitted, but 
worked with as much zeal and fidelity., as though he had been their 
choice, also, in their primary assemblies. It is greatly to be hoped 
that our political leaders have practically, as thoroughly repudiated 
the doctrines of the infidel philosophers, with regard to the immor- 
tality of the soul, as they have practically repudiated their doctrines 
with regard to the infallibility of the human reason and the perfec- 
tibility of man. 

Men who have shown themselves such gross simpletons witli 
regard to human nature, and the affairs of this world, cannot bo 
very safe guides with regard to the Avorld to come. I know their 
religious theories agree most admirably with the natural reason of 
man. Their political theories, however, harmonize equally well with 
the natural reason of mm. But what are the results when they are 
reduced to practice? The results are almost invariably different from 
those exi)0ctcil and predicted. The venders of quack nu'dicincs 
appeal with equal force to natui-al reason. Nearly every science 



17 

violates, and every scientific discovery violates in some things, the 
conclusions of natural reason. With all those lights beforj them, 
why should the philosophers insist with so much vehemence, that 
natural reason, which is not an infallible guide in any other science, 
should be taken as an infallible guide with regard to a future world, 
and the immortality of the soul. 

Mr. Van Buren was admitted to the bar in November 1803, being 
then in his 21st year. He immediately returned to Columbia 
county, and commenced the practice of the law, in partnership with 
the Hon. James I. Van Allen, a half brother on his mother's side 
and a man considerably his senior. Some of the most distinguished 
lawyers, in the State of New York, practiced at that time at the 
bar of Columbia county; among the number, were "Wm. W. Van 
Ness, and Elisha Williams, the latter was said to be a very celebra- 
ted jury lawyer, and was for several years the most prominent rival 
of Mr. Van Buren, at the bar in the city of Hudson, to which Mr. 
Van Buren afterwards removed. The Democratic party were gen- 
erally successful in the elections in the State of New York, after 
1800 ; but in the county of Columbia, the Federalists retained their 
power. The industry and ability of Mr. Van Buren, are said to 
have attracted the attention of the Federalists of Columbia County, 
and unusual efforts are said to have been made to withdraw him 
from the support of the Democratic party, on the ground, that a 
union with the Federalists would be more favorable to his profes- 
sional success. Mr. Van Buren is said to have resisted those temp- 
tations, with Roman patriotism, virtue and firmness. He is said to 
have been much persecuted by the Federalists in his professional 
business. I very much question the truth of this charge of perse- 
cution. His able competitors at the bar, were all, or nearly all 
Federalists ; and most of them eminent and well established in their 
profession, and it was not very likely the Federalists would abandon 
such counsel, to employ so young a man, however able he might be. 
It is very probable, that the activity of Mr. Van Buren as a pol- 
itician, drew upon him the clamorous abuse of the Federalists of 
Columbia County ; and it is more than probable, that the whole 
story of his persecution had no other foundation. 

The wealthy aristocracy of Columbia County, must have fallen 
greatly below the magnanimity, generosity and manliness of their 
ancestors, if they could descend to the pittiful meanness and cruelty 
of persecuting a poor young man in his profession as a lawyer* 



18 

The story evidently received its principal support from the friendly 
zeal of political partisans, anxious to exalt the merits of their friend. 
If we are to credit the friends of Mr. Van Buren, the Federalists 
•were very fully represented at the bar, by men the equals of Mr. 
Van Buren, in legal ability, and his superiors in legal learning, and 
■svho enjoyed the additional most important advantage of being 
thoroughly established in the practice. Under those circumstances, 
the opening for Mr. Van Buren, appears most decidedly to have 
been vrith the Democratic party. He became their political leader 
and the champion of their legal rights. Whatever may have been 
his real political convictions, I have no doubt, he clearly foresaw, 
and firmly believed, that by continuing with the Democratic party, 
he would place himself on the high way to professional and political 
success 

The characteristics of Mr. Van Buren's mind, render it certain 
that he would conceal such thoughts, even from his most intimate 
friends, and he doubtless encouraged the belief, on the part of those 
(when compared with him) short sighted mortals, that he was willing 
to sacrifice himself, like an old Roman, for the good of his country- 
If the old Federalists had persecuted Mr. Van Buren, as they are 
said to have done, it would require a good deal of reasoning to con- 
vince me, that he would ever have forgiven them. When in the 
height of his power, under the administration of Gen. Jackson, he 
would have been but little disposed to give quarter to the many 
worthy, and some unworthy Federalists, who flourished under that 
administration. Instead of retaining or exhibiting ill feelings towards 
them, he is well known, on a memorable occasion, to have protec- 
ted one of the most distinguished of their number, from the javelin 
of his enraged master. On the whole, I am inclined to think, Mr. 
Van Buren entertained kind feelings towards the old Federalists, 
from whom, I doubt not, he had often received those marks of con- 
sideration so often conceded, and with so much grace and propriety 
by an educated aristocracy, to young men of superior abilities and 
honorable characters; and that too, at a time when such concessions 
are most highly esteemed, when young men are first struggling fur 
success and advancement in life. 

Napoleon said, "the first applauses of the French people, sounded 
to my cars, sweet as the voice of Josephine." Notwithstanding Mr. 
Van Buieu's great industry, and great ability, if he had been really 
assailed, as some of his friends allege he was. from the first start in 



19 

his profession, as a lawyer, by nearly the whole of the wealthy and 
business portions of the community, he could not have succeeded at 
the bar. No man could succeed or even sustain himself at the bar 
against such influences as the friends of Mr. Van Buren allege were 
brought to bear against him. In our day, we would not think a 
man very badly persecuted, by the aristocracy, who, in his thirtieth 
year, should receive a majority of the votes of the freeholders of 
the district in which he resided, for the State Senate. The free- 
holders were the exclusive voters for the State Senate, at the time 
when Mr. Van Buren was elected a member of that body. 

It is worthy of remark, that the Democratic members of Congress 
from New York, who gave a biographical sketch of Mr. Van Buren 
in 1840, do not mention his persecution in early life, by the com- 
bined forces of the landed aristocracy, and of the business commu- 
nity. Mr. Van Buren soon became a match for the ablest of his 
competitors ; his reasoning powers gradually improving and increas- 
ing. It is interesting to observe the effects produced by law reading 
and the trial of causes, in improving and developing the reasoning 
powers. A young man of superior ability, on coming to the bar, 
will frequently find himself defeated and foiled in arguments by 
advocates, that in five or ten years more of industrious law reading 
and practice, he will be able to excel with ease in argument. I 
doubt whether the reasoning powers become fully developed with 
less than twenty years of law reading, and a reasonable share of 
practice. 

Judging from the capacity of Mr. Van Buren, I should conjecture 
that he must soon have excelled all except the very ablest legal in- 
tellects in New York, and I presume, if all his qualities and qualifi- 
cations are taken into consideration, he was soon a match for the 
very best of them. The law is a system of rules and principles, 
framed by statesmen and lawyers of great learning, ability and ex- 
perience, for the government of mankind. We derive at least one 
half of the rules and principles contained in our laws and in our 
statutes, from the Romans, and the wisdom of a large portion of 
those rules and principles has been attested by the experience of 
more than two thousand years. I will here add, that we derive 
nineteen twentieths of our laws and legal principles either from the 
Romans or the English, and the wisdom of the greater part of that 
portion of our laws and legal principles which we derive exclusively 
from England, has been attested by the experience of at least one 
hundred years. 



20 

It has been truly stated, that after the Romans had ceased to 
govern the world by their arms, they continued to govern the woild 
by their reason. It was the custom of the Roman lawyers to put 
their arguments in writing, and whenever the justice and equity of 
an argument, were perfectly clear and conclusive, the Roman Judges 
adopted it as the law ; the consequence was, that they succeeded in 
forming what Lord Manstield has termed the most splendid system 
of Avritten reason the world has ever knowrn. The practice of 
adopting clear and conclusive arguments, is still continued in the 
courts of England, and in the courts of the United States, when 
they do not lead to a violation of the express provisions of statutes 
or the long and firmly settled principles of the law. I deem it 
proper to state here, that a large portion of that part of our laws 
which we derive from the Romans, we receive through English juris- 
prudence, and after English experience of its wisdom. The rules 
and principles of the law, are scattered through so many books, and 
constitute a system so extensive, that it requires twenty or twenty- 
five years of the most intense and judiciously directed study, to 
become a really great lawyer. Even then, that object cannot be 
attained, without an acute, comprehensive and logical mind, of the 
very highest order, possessing great strength of memory, and accu- 
racy of judgment. 

My Lord Coke, says, "reason is the life of the law, nay, the com- 
mon law itself, is nothing but reason, which is to be understood of 
an artificial perfection of reason, gotten by long study, observation 
and experience, and not of every man's natural reason." The great 
lawyers, who have presided in the English Court of Chancery, when 
speaking of those cases which are entitled to the greatest weight, as 
precedents often use language substantially, as follows, " the cause 
was argued with great learning and ability, before a Judge of great 
learning and ability, who decided it, after due attention to the sub- 
ject." My Lord Coke, says, "our student shall observe, that the 
knowledge of the law, is like a deep well, out of which, each man 
drawcth, according to the strength of his understanding, he that 
reacheth deepest, he seeth the amiable and admirable secrets of the 
law." Men arc enabled to acquire a knowledge of the law, precisely 
in proportion to the acuteness, clearness and comprehensiveness of 
their minds, the strength of their memories, the accuracy of their 
judgments, and the clearness and logical precision of their reason- 
ing powers, and the extent and judiciously selected character of 



21 

their law reading. Some people have adopted an idea, that men 
of distorted and comparatively stupid minds, can bo taught to un- 
derstand the law with certainty, in the same way that such minds 
can be taught to understand the rules of arithmetic, or book-keeping, 
or English grammar. This is a great error; the law cannot be 
taught to such minds, to any such extent, or with any such clearness 
and certainty, as would justly entitle them to the confidence of the 
community. 

The law resembles the science of logic, in which a man can only 
become a proficient in proportion to the acuteness, clearness and 
comprehensiveness of his mind, the accuracy of his judgment, the 
strength of his memory, the clearness and logical precision of his 
reasoning powers, and the extent of his information. In all legal 
arguments, the intent and meaning of legal principles, the intent 
and meaning of our constitutions, and bills of rights, the intent and 
meaning of our statutes and acts of assembly, are almost invariably 
matters of doubt and argument. Now, inasmuch as nearly all our 
legal principles, constitutions, statutes and acts of assembly were 
framed by intellects of the very highest order, for acuteness, clear- 
ness, comprehensiveness, accuracy of judgment, strength of mem- 
ory, logical clearness and precision of reasoning powers, and extent 
of information, is it not a self-evident proposition, that intellects of 
a similar caliber, similarly organized, with an equal amount of in- 
formation, will more readily and clearly understand the intent and 
meaning of the language, ideas, &c. used by men of similar minds 
with themselves, shnilarly informed, than that their intent and 
meaning should be understood by men of distorted and compara- 
tively stupid intellects, or men of mediocrity intellects, wholly in- 
capable, in many cases, of taking the same vie^vs, or views at all sim- 
ilar on those subjects. 

It is a natural law, as capable of being clearly ascertained as any 
other natural law, that men whose minds are of a similar caliber, 
similaidy organized, if equally informed, will reason very much alike 
and think very much alike on the same questions. One would 
naturally suppose, after a statement of the foregoing facts, that the 
community would be sure to employ men of great learning and 
ability to conduct their causes, and that they would give their 
voices in favor of the elevation of men of great' learning and 
ability to judicial and legal stations. But the people are so ill 
informed with regard to the nature of the law, and with regard to 



22 

lawyers, that they bestow at least one half of the practice of the 
profession upon that portion of the bar, who, to say the least of it, 
are clearly not the most capable of conducting the business for the 
interests of their clients; and so far as judicial and legal stations 
are concerned, the vox populi is, as a genei'al rule, given in favor 
of the same individuals on whom the practice is bestowed. Under 
our legal system, as at present organized, when a man goes to em- 
ploy a lawyer, he is just about as likely to make a correct choice as 
a man would be if he were taken blindfolded into a room containing 
twenty or thirty persons, and he were desired to select some one of 
them. 

When the people observe that a lawyer has a great deal of law 
business to do, they conclude that he is a good lawyer, and without 
exercising their understandings on the subject, they employ him 
because others do so. The people are particularly prone to employ 
that class of lawyers as collectors, and for the purpose of settling 
estates, drawing wills, &g. even when they are aware that their 
learning and ability are not of a high order, under the impres- 
sion that their claims are so clearly ascertained and just, and that 
the path of duty is so clear and well known, that even such men 
cannot mistake the course to be pursued. It is a fact well known 
to the profession, that the practice is a very small matter, and has 
very little to do Avith qualifying a man for an able discharge of his 
duty as a lawyer. Without extensive and judicious reading, and 
great ability, a man never can become a good lawyer, no matter 
what the extent of his practice may be; but practice is everything 
in the eyes of the people 

It is a singular fact, that a judge, on retiring from the bench, 
should not be thought worthy of confidence as a lawyer. It seems 
it must bo a present practice, or it will not attract the confidence 
and patronage of the masses. It would seem to be a proposition 
too abstruse for the popularjmind, that such a man is not likely to 
have forgotten the law. I take this occasion to inform that portion 
of my readers who are not acquainted with the law, that there is no 
branch of the law in which a difficult case may not arise ; and that 
no one who is unacquainted with the law can form any just or 
adequate conception whether the case is a clear and simple one, or 
not; or know into what lawyer's hands it can with safety to the 
party be placed. 

The people have adopted another most erroneous notion, namely, 



23 

that if the judge is a man of learning and ability, their causes will 
be correctly tried, no matter what may bo the capacities and learn- 
ing of the advocates. It is as absolutely essential to the just trial of 
a cause, that the party should have a lawyer of great learning and 
ability to prepare his cause for trial. If the proper preparation is 
not made, a man may lose a perfectly clear and just cause ; for it is 
no part of the duty or business of the judge to prepare his cause for 
trial, and if the preparation is not made, and the proper testimony 
is not adduced, he will assuredly lose it, no matter what the learn- 
ing, ability and integrity of the judge may be. 

So badly is the law administered in Pennsylvania at this time, 
(and it is probable that it is not any better administered in New 
York or the other States of the Union,) that it would be almost 
impossible for any lawyer of learning and ability to spend a week 
in any of our courts of general jurisdiction, without seeing some 
one stripped of his property, or sent to the penitentiary, owing to 
ignorance, incapacit}*, or a want of integrity on the part of hi3 
counsel. Although our government possesses a very wise, just and 
comprehensive system of laws, is it not manifest that those to whom 
the laws are not accurately administered, although they nominally 
live under that government, virtually live under a very different 
system. It will strike the mind of every intelligent man as very 
absurd, to talk about living under a just, wise and comprehensive 
system of laws, when those laAvs are not correctly administered. 
The law, it is true, with very few exceptions, is nothing but reason ; 
but it is the reasoning of the most acute, comprehensive, logical 
and learned minds, the accuracy of which has been shown by long 
experience. , 

The people labor under a great error, with regard to the practi- 
cability of rendering the law more clear and definite by a codifica- 
tion. If it were possible to employ the most acute, comprehensive, 
learned and logical minds, possessing the greatest strength of mem- 
ory, which our country or the world afibrds, they could not frame a 
code of laws, the principles of which would be set out with as much 
clearness, acuteness, comprehensiveness and logical precision as the 
principles of the law are now set out with. It is true that men 
express themselves with clearness, precisely in proportion to the 
acuteness, clearness and comprehensiveness of their minds, the 
strength of their memories, the extent of their information, the 
accuracy of their judgments and the logical precision and clearness 



24 

of their reasoning powers. But our laws and legal principles have 
been framed bj precisely such minds; and the various clauses of 
our laws and our legal principles have been so often the subjects of 
argument and reflection in our courts, by such minds as have been 
described above, that the meanings of the various clauses of our 
laws and of legal principles have been reasoned out with an acute- 
ness, comprehensive clearness and logical precision not likely to be 
surpassed or equalled, in a code which has not gone through the 
aforesaid process. 

It is almost impossible for men of mediocrity intellects, or stupid 
or distorted intellects, t'o frame a law with sufficient clearness to 
render their entire meaning definite and certain, unless by accident. 
By way of example, I will state that the acts of assembly of 
Pennsylvania, which of late years are almost all framed by men of 
not above mediocrity intellect, are almost always, when acute, com- 
prehensive and logical reasoning powers are applied to their construc- 
tion, found to be confused and doubtful with regard to portions of 
their meaning, and sometimes with regard to their whole meaning ; 
whilst the laws framed by the great minds of the Senate of the 
United States are, if not always perfectly clear, capable of being 
understood with certainty. 

The great masses, even of educated and intelligent minds unacqain- 
ted with the law, appear to think that it is quite an easy task for any 
man of good mediocrity capacity to frame a law, with such clear- 
ness that the meaning of it could not be mistaken. If such gentle- 
men will read a work or two on logic, and two or three volumes of 
law reports, I venture to say, they will be convinced of their error. 
If they will read our acts of assembly, and then the arguments of 
counsel with regard to their construction, and then the decisions of 
our judges with regard to their construction, I think they will have 
but little doubt in coming to the conclusion, ilmt it is not so easy a 
task as they have imagined, to frame a law with such clearness that 
the meaning thereof cannot be mistaken by men of common capacities. 
Instead of being an easy task, it is only to be performed by the 
ablest minds ; and then it is one of the most difficult tasks at which 
such minds can be employed. 

I admit that if men possessing the most acute and comprehensive 
minds, with accurate judgments, logical clearness and precision of 
reasoning powers, and great strength of memory, thoroughly learned 
iu the law, were employed to digest the law, and were allowed 



25 

sufficient time and the necessary facilities to enable them to do so, 
the law might be reduced to much more accessible dimensions, and 
might be rendered much more clear, definite and certain. The 
Roman Emperor, Justinian, employed seventeen of the ablest 
lawyers in his empire, to digest the Roman law, and allowed them 
ten years in which to accomplish the Avork. They occupied only 
three years in framing the digest; they acknowledged, however, 
that the work was imperfectly done, because a sufficient length of 
time had not been taken in which to accomplish it. I may add, 
that it has been a constant source of regret to the profession of the 
law, ever since, that the work was so imperfectly done. The Roman 
law was probably not scattered through a greater number of books 
than our own. 

My idea of a digest would be this : that our digesters should take 
the most extensive and approved elementary treatises on each branch 
of the law, and adopt them as the basis of their digest, on those seve- 
ral branches of the law. For instance, I would suggest that Starkie 
on Evidence should be taken as the basis of the digest on the law of 
Evidence. I would then suggest that every principle that was not 
the law should be stricken from it, and that every principle that 
diligent research could discover, as the clear and settled law, should 
be added to it. I would then suggest that an act of the legislature 
should be passed, declaring that every legal authority, which should 
be found to differ from the digest, should in futui'c be disregarded. 
I would suggest that every other branch of the law should be diges- 
ted in the same way, I would also suggest that all laws and legal 
principles, which clearly violate natural reason and justice, and the 
repeal of which would not impair the happiness of society, should 
be left out of the digest, and abolished by legislative enactment; but 
care should be taken that such abolition should not affect contracts 
already entered into, or vested rights. 

I have already stated that it requires an intellect of the highest 
order twenty or twenty-five years of intense study, judiciously 
selected, to become a first rate lawyer, I have no hesitation in 
saying, if the law were digested as suggested, that even such a man 
could acquire from the digest a much more comprehensive knowl- 
edge of the law, than he could do at present, by spending a life- 
time, with the most intense and judiciously directed application 
in its study. The law is scattered through several thousand 
volumes, and many of the authorities, although reasoned out with 



26 

great clearness and force, are contradictory. When the reader 
takes into consideration the size of a law book, he will readily 
conjecture that it is utterly impossible for any man, no matter 
what his industry and ability may be, to read one half of them. 
By digesting the law, it could probably be condensed into one or 
two hundred volumes. One great advantage of a digest would be, 
that it would remove many of the doubts and uncertainties caused by 
contradictory authorities. Another advantage would be, that an 
industrious lawyer could read the whole digest, and much more easily 
than at present ascertain where to find the law applicable to the 
case on hands. I will here mention another advantaore which a 
digest possesses over a code: the law at present provides for the 
necessities and wants of society, with a comprehensive wisdom, 
minuteness and precision, such as no human learning and ability 
could give to a code, although it could be preserved in a digest; 
and one reason why a digest possesses so decided an advantage 
over a code, is because the wants of society have been gradually 
provided for by the law, through a course of some thousands of 
years, and the deficiencies of the law, during the same period, have 
been gradually remedied. 

It is well known to every lawyer, that a law, when enacted and 
brought into operation, is scarcely ever found to have provided for 
every case for which it was intended to afford a remedy. The de- 
fects have been gradually supplied, as such cases have occurred and 
suggested the necessity of an additional remedy. I will here add, 
however, that it would be absolute madness, on the part of any gov- 
ernment, to employ any other intellects, except such as I have sug- 
gested, in the formation of even a digest. If such intellects cannot 
be employed in the work, it is a great deal better to let it alone alto- 
gether. The reader will naturally inquire, what remedies do you 
suggest for the evils of which you complain? I will endeavor, in 
the following pages, to point out the suitable remedies, actuated 
more by a desire to throw light upon the subject I am discussing, 
than by any hope that my suggestions will be adopted ; and being 
better acquainted with the organization of the courts of Pennsyl- 
vania than Avith the organization of those of any other State in the 
Union, I shall make Pennsylvania the theatre of my suggestions, 
the principles of which can be applied anywhere. 

In the first place, three examiners should be appointed, one by 
the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and one each by the President 



07 



Judges of two Courts of Common Pleas, or District Courts, situa- 
ted beyond the district for which the examiners should be appointed 
to act ; the examiners, however, should be appointed by the Presi- 
dent Judges of the districts in which the examiners reside. No one 
should be appointed an examiner, who practices regularly in the 
district for which he is to act as an examiner. The examiners 
should not receive any compensation for their services, lest 
persons incapable of discharging their duties in a proper manner 
should receive the appointments. No one, however, should be 
compelled to serve as an examiner, unless he had a practice worth 
three or four hundred dollars a year, or voluntarily chose to serve. 

I would then make it the duty of the examiners to fix a time 
when they would be present in each county for the purpose of 
examining the law^'ers of that county; and after thoroughly exam- 
ining each of them, and summoning and examining testimony for 
the purpose of satisfying their minds with regard to the learning 
and ability of each of them. I would make it the duty of the ex- 
aminers to divide the present profession into five classes, in each 
city and county, if they could possibly do so with justice. I would 
then prohibit the people from employing the inferior classes of law- 
yers, until they had first exhausted the higher classes. If the 
inferior classes of lawyers were found capable of practicing in anr 
one or more branches of the law, with as much safety to the public 
as first class lawyers, I would make it the duty of the examiners to 
give them a license to practice in those branches. 

I would also suggest that the process of dividing the profession 
into five classes should be continued and applied to the profession, 
in future as well as at the present time. It would serve as a stim- 
ulant to industry and ambition, and would have the efiect of improv- 
ing the profession of the law and of advancing the cause of justice, 
and also the cause of good government. I would also make it the 
duty of the examiners to examine and to license men who were not 
general lawyers, to practice in any branch of the law for which 
they chose to 'prepare themselves to practice as first class lawyers, 
with safety to the public. It is my belief, that a man possessing a 
reasonably good education, with the right kind of faculties, could, 
by two or three years diligent and judicious reading in some one 
branch of the law, qualify himself to practice in that branch as a 
first class lawyer, with safety to the public. I will add, that a suc- 
cessful practice in any one branch of the law in any of our large 



28 

cities, would be quite as lucrative as the best practices in those cities 
now are, particularly a practice in any one of those branches of the 
law in which the practice is lucrative. In county towns, a successful 
practice, in any one branch of the law, would be much more valuable 
to a lawyer than the practice which young men usually obtain for 
years after their admission to the bar. Those gentlemen might 
proceed from one branch to another, until they finally became first 
class lawyers in all. 

The aforesaid examinations should be continued once a year, and 
after the first year I would make it the duty of the examiners, on each 
succeeding examination, to call before them the President Judges of 
each district, and to examine them with rco;ard to the learning, abil- 
ity and integrity with which the lawyers practiced in their profession; 
and to call any other witnesses, and examine any other testimony, 
that they might think necessary or proper, for the purpose of ascer- 
taining those facts. I would then make it the duty of the examiners, 
if any one was found clearly guilty of a gross want of integrity in 
his practice, to strike his name from the roll. I would, however, 
require the case to be a very clear and gross one, before such a 
course should be adopted, lest some innocent man should suffer. If 
the case was not very clear and gross, I would suggest that the 
offender should be suspended from practice for one year. In the 
event of striking from the roll, I would give the offender the power 
of appeal to the Supreme Court, who might, after a thorough ex- 
amination of all the facts, by a commissioner, or in any other way 
they might choose, either confirm the decision of the examiners, or 
restore him to the profession, on suffering one year's suspension 
from the practice. 

I would only permit men to practice law in the county or city for 
which they were examined ; they should, however, have the privi- 
lege of attending for examination in any city or county, at the time 
of holding the examination for such city or county; and ^if found 
capable of practicing as first class lawyers in such city or county, 
they should have a license granted them to practice therein. My 
object is, that the lawyers of each county or city should be divided 
into five classess, if possible, and not that all the lawyers in the state 
should be put into one body and divided into five classes. The 
people ought to select all the law officers from the first class lawyers. 
Can anything be more absurd than to employ men in the adminis- 
tration of the law who, from a want of learning and ability or 



29 

integrity, are incapable of discharging their duty with safety to the 
public ? 

I have suggested that the power of appointing all the examiners 
should be placed in the hands of the profession of the law, because 
they alone know ho\T to select them, and, furthermore, are not so 
likely to have their minds biassed by political feelings and party 
organizations as any other authorities in the state. It may be 
alleged, that if the aforesaid system should be adopted, it would 
prevent people from choosing their own lawyers ; but the people do 
not now decide who shall practice and who shall not practice law. 
It is the profession alone who now examine and admit men to prac- 
tice at the bar. The difference would be, that the people would 
then have men of learning, ability and integrity to conduct their 
causes, and to serve as their legal advisers, and would be effectually 
protected from falling into the hands of knaves and fools — classes 
of men who, under the present system, procure so large a portion 
of the practice of the profession. 

I have already stated that the people are profoundly ignorant of 
the law, and with regard to the capacities and qualifications of law- 
yers. Even men of education, intellect and intelligence, have no 
just or adequate conceptions on those subjects. If a lawyer of learn- 
ing and ability witnesses a trial, and observes the manner in which 
counsel conduct and argue their causes, he will perceive without 
difficulty wherein one excels the other; Avhile a man of intellect and 
education will be quite likely to make a mistake, because he does 
not understand the law. It would be a good deal like a skilful 
mechanic examining an article of workmanship in the trade to 
which he belonged, along with a man of intelligence who did not 
know anything about the trade. The mechanic would detect the 
slightest defect or superiority, while the man who was not a me- 
chanic would be quite likely to overlook such matters entirely, and 
perhaps would prefer the worst piece of workmanship. 

I have stated that where men are equals in legal learning — 
perhaps it would be more correct to say in legal reading — they 
excel each other in knowledge of the law, precisely in propor- 
tion to the superiority of their understandings. Inasmuch as any 
intellectual superiority displayed by one counsel over another, under 
such circumstances, is instantly made manifest to the mind of a law- 
yer of learning and ability; because it displays a superior knowl- 
edge of the law, which he perceives and understands with the ease 



30 

and readiness with which a skilful mechanic perceives and under- 
stands the object and merit of a piece of workmanship, in his trade. 
I think it is very evident, that lawyers are the only safe judges of 
the merits of the profession. 

It does not appear to me, that it would be a very unreasonable 
restraint upon liberty, to prevent men who are ignorant of the na- 
ture of medicines, from poisoning themselves or the public, by using 
them. And I think it would be equally reasonable, to prevent igno- 
rant, incapable, or dishonest lawyers from robbing men of their 
property, or sending them to the penitentiary, or getting them 
hanged. I should be happy to see the people have the power of 
managing every thing that they understand, but it is so clearly 
demonstrated everywhere, that they do not understand how to dis- 
criminate among lawyers, that it is absolutely necessary, for the 
public welfare, that they should be deprived of the privilege of 
choosing their counsel, except among men of undoubted qualifica- 
tions. Under the present system, six tenths of the profession, are 
utterly destitute of the necessary qualifications, and the people are 
quite as likely to fall into the wrong hands as into the right hands. 
In addition to that, men of learning and ability are frequently ren- 
dered corrupt, by the facts, that the lower orders of the profession 
are quite as successful as themselves in procuring business, and 
sometimes more so, and that the habit is almost universal with the 
lower orders of the profession, to cheat their clients, because it can 
be done with impunity, and no encouragement is offered to men of 
learning, ability and integrity, but rather the reverse. 

So long as lawyers can cheat their clients with such impunity, 
that they can acquire fortunes by doing so, and are so far from 
being amenable to public opinion, that they can be, and frequently 
are, elected to the highest stations of our country, over the heads 
of upright men, much better qualified than themselves, it will be in 
vain to attempt to restrain them by the precepts of morality and 
religion, from their wicked course. It is not in the nature of men, 
under such circumstances, with very few exceptions, to conduct 
themselves with uprightness. When a lawyer cheats his client 
under the present system, the chances are, that he will not only 
avoid his suspicion and the suspicion of the public, but that he will 
so far delude both, as to make them believe that he has conferred a 
great favor on his client. The examiners would instantly detect 
such a transaction. It is a fact well known to the community, that 



31 

success in the profession of the law, opens the way to nearly all the 
high offices in our country, and it is a fact equally well known, that 
they are nearly all now tilled, and always have been filled by law- 
yers. So soon as it is clearly settled, that it is only by learning, 
ability and integrity, that a man can succeed at the bar, is it not 
obvious, that a great moral reformation will take place. The pro- 
fession of the law, the great body of whom are now so lamentably 
imbecile and impure, will become a highly intellectual learned and 
upright body of men. I say it with pleasure, there is no class of 
men, who are so strongly inclined to discharge every duty, as advo- 
cates, as citizens, and as statesmen, with uprightness and fidelity, if 
the community will only sustain them in that course. 

If the people now select lawyers for their political leaders, is it 
not still more probable, that they will select them to fill the high 
stations of the country, when they really become as a class, men of 
learning, ability and integrity; attributes which they are now sup- 
posed by the people to possess, but in which, in many instances, 
they are most lamentably deficient. The example and opinions of 
the profession of the law, produce a very powerful effect on the 
minds of the people for good or evil. It is manifest, therefore, 
that an upright and able administration of the law, is not the only 
advantage which will be gained by the proposed reform ; an upright 
and able administration of the law, will of itself greatly assist the 
moral reformation. A consciousness on the part of every citizen, 
that justice will be done him, if he resorts to the law, will undoubt- 
edly, greatly encourage upright dealings among men. But, when 
to that is added a wholesome public opinion, and a feeling of confi- 
dence, on the part of the people, that offices and honors will be dis- 
tributed as the rewards of merit, the incentives to uprightness and 
fair dealing will be very strong indeed. If the proposed system 
should have the effect, (and it is my belief that it will,) of filling all 
the high stations of the country, with men of learning, ability and 
integrity, it is surely not unreasonable to conclude, that the appoint- 
ing power will be exercised by such men, in such a way, that the 
offices within their gift will be distributed as the rewards of ability 
and integrity, on the part of the applicants. 

According to the observations of De Toequeville, the lawyers are 
the first class in society, in the United States, and, inasmuch as 
there is always a strong feeling of pride, urging men to imitate the 
highest classes in society, that feeling will, under the proposed sys- 



82 

tern, ■work most powerfully in favor of moral reform. It is a re- 
mark of De Tocqueville, that the politicians in the United States 
are all corrupt, and that they corrupt the people by their bad exam- 
ple. After soberly reflecting on the best information within my 
reach, I have come to the conclusion, that one third of the voters of 
the United States are either office holders or office hunters, and that 
they, with very few exceptions, depend on party organizations for 
success. It is scarcely possible, to find a man attending any of the 
public meetings, of either of the great parties, ■vyho does not hope 
for office, either for himself or some of his relatives or friends. I 
admit, that very few of them can be induced to acknowledge that 
they are seeking offices for themselves or their relatives or friends. 
They are all aware, that such an avowal would have a tendency to 
render them unpopular ; but they do not appear to suspect the rea- 
son why it renders them unpopular ; they have no adequate concep- 
tion with regard to the numbers of their fellow citizens who are 
seekinjr offices for themselves or their friends, and whose envious 
feelings become excited by the aspirations of others, even should 
those aspirations be for dijQferent situations. Indeed, so clearly sat- 
isfied are nearly all politicians, that it is unpopular to acknowledge 
their object, that they resemble women in labor, who only acknowl- 
edge their transgressions when reduced to the last extremity. When 
a man observes that his neighbor's prospect for office is so poor that 
it is wholly improbable he will ever obtain any thing of the kmd, he 
cannot believe it credible that he is aspiring for any thing of the 
sort, until he acknowledges the fact. That the aforesaid estimate 
of the number of office hunters is not exaggerated, I will venture to 
prove by the following calculation. There are probably one hun- 
dred thousand office holders in the United States, including national, 
State, county and township officers. There are three millions of 
voters, that would give thirty men for each office ; now would it be 
an over-estimate, to say, that averaging all the offices in^the country, 
there are ten aspirants at least, for each office. For some offices, 
there are a much greater number of aspirants, and for other offices 
a smaller number. 

If De Tocquevillc is right, rascality, hypocrisy and corruption 
are now the high ways to wealth and office in the United States ; 
as a natural consequence, all those motives which usually control the 
actions of men, urge them to rascality, hypocrisy and corruption ; 
because few will be willing to place the appointing power in the 



33 

hands of an able and an honest man, if they are themselves looking 
for offices from him, and are conscious of a vrant of ability and in- 
tegrity. They will be equally unwilling to place such men in situa- 
tions, ■where they can exercise an influence with the people, justly 
apprehending that such influence would be used against them. 
When we unite this wide spread desire for offices, with the almost 
universal desire to imitate the manners and customs of the lawyers, 
as the first class in society, and make merit the interest of all, and 
the only sure way to success, may we not reasonably hope, that such 
inducements will turn the natural desires of men, in favor of virtue 
and fair dealing ; then we shall have greatly lessened the labors of 
the clergy, in converting men to genuine Christianity. Now the 
natural impulses of men, lead them the wrong way. Under the pro- 
posed system, the natural impulses of men, would lead them to pur- 
sue the paths of wisdom and virtue, as the surest and only sure 
ways of attaining those objects, which their minds and hearts most 
strongly desire in this world. 

The state of political society has actually become so corrupt 
among us, that ability and integrity are almost insurmountable ob- 
jections to a man's elevation. De Tocqueville, who, although he 
did not possess the capacity of a statesman, was a most acute and 
accurate observer of the motives of men, has most admirably des- 
cribed the tyranny of public opinion in the United States. That 
public opinion is now employed in enforcing the hypocritical doc- 
trines of demagogues, and appears to exercise a more despotic sway 
over the minds of the people, than the most absolute despotisms on 
earth have ever been able to enforce on the minds of their subjects. 
(A man may, by his insignificance, or absence from the presence of 
a despot, escape his tyranny, but who can hope to escape from the 
numerous eyes of a vindictive and tyrannical people.) When the 
powerful engine of public opinion shall be turned in favor of wis- 
dom, patriotism and virtue, may we not anticipate the most happy 
results. If it has proved irresistible for evil, it will surely prove 
equally irresistible for good. I have already stated, that the people 
select nearly the whole of our rulers from the successful members 
of the bar. It is self-evident, therefore, how very necessary it is, 
that men of great learning, ability and integrity, should alone suc- 
ceed in the profession of the law. The Supreme ruler of the uni- 
verse, has rendered it as plain as any other natural law, that it was 
his intention, that men of comprehensive, philosophic and states- 
5 



34 

manlike minds should govern mankind. Such minds are alone capa- 
ble of taking comprehensive, statesmanlike and philosophic views of 
public affairs. It is impossible for any one, without such powers of 
intellect, to manage such affairs with wisdom and propriety. Such 
minds are alone capable of governing mankind, either in a savage 
or civilized state, with wisdom and discretion. 

In a civilized state of society, it is necessary to add education 
and extensive information, to the other high qualities enumerated. 
A nation under the control of a great mind or minds, possesses as 
great an advantage as an army under the command of an Hannibal, 
a C»sar, or a Napoleon. Nations who neglect the natural laws in 
the selection of their rulers, suffer all the painful and ruinous con- 
sequences which mankind suffer for violating any other natural laws. 
Men of mediocrity and distorted minds, manage their private affairs 
in many cases, with skill and success, but in managing the affairs of 
State, whether they are knaves or not in principle and intention, 
they are invariably most unwise in their actions, and most unfortu- 
nate in the results of their proceedings. I will here endeavor to 
point out a circumstance which often misleads the public, with regard 
to the capacities of lawyers, for affairs of State. It has often been 
remarked, that men who argue causes with as much ability as it is 
possible to use in the courts of Westminster Hall, urging every rea- 
son that ingenuity and ability can possibly urge on their side of the 
question, frequently fail to make an impression in the house of 
Commons. It has also often been remarked, that men who were 
only their equals at the bar, have made an impression in the House 
of Commons, displaying ability for affairs of State. I am not 
aware that the cause of this difference has ever been explained in a 
clear and satisfactory manner. Men possess an ability for the law 
precisely in proportion to the acuteness, clearness and comprehen- 
siveness of their minds, the strength of their memories, the accuracy 
of their judgments and the logical clearness and precision of their 
reasoning powers. 

The law is a system which provides rules and regulations for the 
intercourse of society, in all its various, minute and intricate rela- 
tions. A man of remarkable mediocrity intellect, will, in many 
cases, perceive the circumstances and relations of a case in its bear- 
ings on society, as fully and clearly as an intellect of the highest 
order, and will be able to illustrate and apply the principles of the 
law to such a case, as well as one of the ablest advocates, and often 



35 

ftrgue the facts, if they are few and simple, with as much ability as 
the most powerful advocate can do. There are, however, in a large 
majority of cases, many points very perceptible to a superior in- 
tellect, which a mediocrity intellect cannot, with its own resources, 
perceive or reach, although, perhaps not incapable of understanding 
them, when explained or pointed out by a superior intellect. One 
great cause of the doubt and uncertainty which exist, with regard 
to the capacities of lawyers for affairs of State, while at the bar, 
arises from the fact, that very few lawyers of superior intellect, pos- 
sess the mediocrity powers of the intellect so fully developed as they 
are developed in the minds of some remarkable mediocrity men. 
In such an instance, the mediocrity mind will see many points in a 
cause which the great mind does not perceive, although in many 
other points of the same cause, the great intellect will perceive 
points which the mediocrity intellect cannot perceive. This dis- 
crepancy is apt to leave so much doubt and uncertainty on the 
public mind as to which of them possesses the superior intellect, 
that it is impossible to satisfy even the great majority of educated 
and judicious minds as to who is the mere lawyer and who both a 
lawyer and a statesman ; except by an actual test of the capacities 
of both, on great questions of state. Mediocrity intellects, although 
very useful at the bar, and often in many cases comparing very fav- 
orably with the ablest intellects, do not admit of the same favorable 
comparison in a legislative body. On great questions of state and 
public policy, and even in discussing laws for the municipal govern- 
ment of the community, their views are almost wholly useless. 
Owing to their inability to take views sufficiently comprehensive, 
they cannot, as it were, take the whole subject into their minds at 
once and survey it in all its parts and in all its bearings on society, 
giving to each part its due weight and importance. They cannot fore- 
see with reasonable certainty the probable effects of a law on society 
in the aggregate and in all its minute parts, at the same time. There 
is absolutely a want of room in their minds to take in a subject so 
comprehensive, and containing so many minute and intricate parts. 
They can only perceive portions of the subject; they cannot take 
the whole into so small a space. Erskine's first noted failure in the 
House of Commons, took place in the discussion of a law for the 
government of India, a question eminently calculated to employ the 
higher and more statesman-like powers of the mind. Ilis success 
as an advocate at the bar had been so pre-eminent, that it was evi- 



36 

dently thought necessary that the great leader of the ministerial 
party should encounter him. When he first took his seat in the 
House of Commons he was received with loud cheers by the Whigs, 
whilst the ministerial branches exhibited the greatest consternation. 
When Ersldne commenced his speech on the India bill, Pitt prepa- 
red to take notes; he soon, however, detected the incapacity of his 
adversary for questions of state, and threw away the paper with aa 
expression of countenance, and a gesture indicating contempt. An 
acute, powerful and discriminating mind will detect a want of com- 
prehensiveness of intellect in some of the forensic displays to be 
found in the published volume of his speeches. Some of them will, 
however, demonstrate the truth of my proposition, that a man of me- 
diocrity intellect can argue many legal questions as fully and clearly 
as the ablest of men. I do not believe that any human intellect could 
illustrate the law more clearly and ably than Lord Erskine has done 
on constructive treason and the law of libel. I will put his argu- 
ment in the House of Lords on the trial of Queen Caroline, on the 
subject of admitting testimony, against any thing which can be 
produced by the human intellect on that question. The argument 
is given in Campbell's life of Lord Erskine. 

Lord Erskine had certainly a very remarkable mediocrity intellect, 
nay, he had more than a mediocrity intellect ; although it is equally 
certain that he did not possess a comprehensive and statesman-like 
mind. I have no doubt they describe him truly who say that he 
was the greatest advocate that ever practised at the English bar. 
This success arose from the fact that probably not one of the 
great English lawyers had the mediocrity powers developed in so 
extraordinary a manner. If the great English lawyers had pos- 
sessed the mediocrity poAvers equally well developed, united with 
the higher powers, they would have excelled Erskine. This dis- 
tinction between mediocrity minds and great minds has been long 
recognized by the educated and the able. Henry VII, who was 
a discriminating monarch, satisfied his mind with regard to the 
ability of Cardinal Wolsey, by trying him on matters of weight and 
gravity. Although this distinction has been long known to the 
educated and the able, it is not universally known or understood by 
the educated and the able even at the present day ; there are some 
men with educated and superior intellects who do not appear to 
perceive a distinction, or to know how to draw a distinction between 
a mediocrity intellect and a great intellect. Great minds take sim* 



ST 

ilar views on great questions, even when they take directly opposite 
positions on a great question, there is a similarity in the views and 
reasons with which they sustain their respective positions. There 
is so strong a resemblance in the views and reasons with which they 
sustain their respective positions, that I think that if the attention of 
even an acute mediocrity intellect were drawn to the subject, the 
owner thereof could scarcely avoid perceiving the resemblance. 

It is very probable that the people will not always select the most 
able, learned and upright members of the bar to fill the high offices 
of state; bat if we give them men of learning, ability and integ- 
rity from whom alone to make a choice, we shall not in future, as 
we do now, find our congress and legislative assemblies almost des- 
titute of men of great learning, ability and integrity. The people 
will elect lawyers, and they will not be likely to select lawyers who 
occupy a degraded position in the profession ; it will follow as a 
natural consequence, that men of a much higher order for learning, 
ability and integrity than those who now reach such stations, will be 
elevated to them. If blind chance alone should guide the people in 
their selections from the profession of the law, under the proposed 
system, they could not fail to elevate a sufficient number of really 
great men to our state legislatures and to congress, to render the 
improvement in the working of our government manifest to every 
intelligent mind. The fact is, that a great deal of the injustice 
which is now done to the able, learned and upright members of the 
bar, is caused by the influence of the politicians who infest all our 
counties and towns, and who look with jealousy on the success of 
men of learning, ability and integrity in the profession of the law ; 
because they know that the success of such a man in the profession 
of the law is sure to give him a very considerable political influence, 
and to render his claims for office, with whatever party he belongs 
to, almost irresistable : consequently, the politicians use their in- 
fluence to prevent such men from obtaining practice. 

I have no doubt that it would be for the advantage of politicians 
to foster and encourage men of learning, ability and integrity at the 
bar ; but they seldom think so, and so far as my knowledge on the 
subject extends, the prevailing practice among our politicians is to 
destroy one another if possible, and not to build up their respective 
fortunes in unison. If a politician were to put forward a man of 
superior intellect and education, on whose friendship he could rely, 
(and it is always more safe to rely on the friendship of such men 



38 

than on the friendship of any others,) he could, by means of the 
influence of his friend, either with the people or with executives, 
accomplish a great deal more in the way of obtaining offices for 
himself or his friends, than in any other way. Such, however, does 
not appear to be the way of the world. When men see others who 
aspire to the same stations which they themselves are aspiring to, 
they appear, as a general rule, to go blindly for their destruction, — • 
indulging their malignant passions in preference to their reason. 

The respective influences which Mr. Calhoun exercised in South 
Carolina, Mr. Clay in Kentucky, and Mr. Webster in Massachusetts, 
seem to show not only the very great power which such men can 
exercise for their friends when elevated to high places, but also to 
show the good they can do for their country, and the advantage 
which will accrue to society from having the examples of such men 
in high places, in all the different states of the union; for people 
are prone to imitate the examples of those in high places. Many 
other examples could be cited to show the very great power exer- 
cised by such men over public opinion, when elevated to high stations ; 
or, more properly speaking, when elevated to those stations from 
which such intellects can exercise the greatest influence. When all 
that power shall be directed to the public good, and when all our 
states and the minor situations of the country shall be under an 
equally happy influence, and the judgem'ents as well as the pride 
and passions of the people shall lead them to obey the precepts and 
imitate the examples of such men, surely a great political, moral 
and religious reform will follow as a natural consequence. 

It is, I think, tolerably clear that under the proposed system, 
which will be sure to elevate one or two good lawyers in every county 
town in the State, the lawyers thus elevated will be able efl'ectually 
to restrain the loafing, political demagogues, not only from injuring 
them in their profession, but from cheating and swindling their 
neighbors by elevating unworthy and improper persons to office. 
I do not desire to increase the number of lawyers in office, except 
in those instances where they are better qualified than other men ; 
but I do most anxiously desire when the people elect lawyers to the 
offices of Governor, Legislature and Congress, that they would select 
men of the highest order of intellect, and of great learning and integ- 
rity. We should then no longer have the mortification to behold 
(as we now so frequently do) our public offices filled by men who 
disgrace and degrade us by their ignorance, imbecility and corrup- 



3U 



tion, and who demoralize society by their bad examples, and by the 
social disorders which they produce by their improper administration 
of public affairs. If the proposed system should be adopted, every 
intelligent lawyer will perceive at once that it would be utterly 
impossible for a knave, or a man of distorted intellect, or a man 
destitute of the necessary legal learning, to succeed at the bar. 
Such a man might possibly pass his first examination, but his career 
would assuredly be arrested at the end of one or two years. 

By way of enabling the examiners to ascertain with greater cer- 
tainty the learning and abilities of the lawyers, I would suggest 
that those lawyers who have not an extensive practice at the bar, 
should form debating societies, where they could try imaginary 
causes; arguing on a state of facts framed for the case, as though 
they were addressing a jury and also arguing questions of law to 
the court. I would suggest that it should be made the duty of some 
first-class lawyer, whose abilities were well known, to preside at such 
societies as Judge, once or twice a week, and that the president 
Judge of the court of Common Pleas should suggest the law ques- 
tions which should be argued at those meetings. It will be very 
obvious to the professional mind that such a course would enable 
the examiners to become as thoroughly acquainted with the capac- 
ities and learning of those lawyers who were without practice,^ as 
with the capacities and learning of those lawyers who have practice. 
Every lawyer of learning and ability will perceive on reflection, that 
it is impossible to form a perfectly accurate opinion of the learning 
and ability of a lawyer, except by seeing that ability extensively 
exercised on a great variety of cases, and seeing that learning tested 
on a great variety of cases. A man may argue one question of law 
well and not be able to argue another equally well, and a man may 
be very learned on one question and very ignorant on others. If a 
judicious variety of cases should be framed for him to argue, the 
acuteness and comprehensiveness of his mind, the accuracy of his 
judgment, the logical precision and clearness of his reasoning pow- 
ersfthe strength of his memory, and the extent of his learmng 
would become fully known. Many of the errors into which the 
public fall with regard to the intellectual abilities and qualifications 
of lawyers, and of men in general, doubtless arises from the indef- 
inite phrases used in describing those attributes; for instance, when 
any one hears another described as a "smart fellow," can he tell 
from that designation what particular powers of mind he possesses. 



40 * 

The phrase is applied alike to acute, comprehensive and logical 
minds, and to acute and logical mediocrity minds, and to acute 
minds whether logical or not ; in fact, it is applied indiscriminately 
to all minds that are not stupid. My objection to the phrase is that 
it does not convey any clear, definite and adequate idea of the 
powers of mind intended to be described. 

If, in describing the mental powers of a man such as is usually 
described as a smart fellow, the writer or speaker were to say he 
possesses an acute and comprehensive mind, great strength of 
memory, an accurate judgement, reasoning powers remarkable for 
clearness and precision, a good education, and extensive information, 
the hearer or reader would at once conclude that the person so 
described possersed an intellect of the highest order. If he wished 
to describe an intellect such as I have just mentioned as being well 
organized for affairs of state, he should add the words, statesman-like 
mind to the other items enumerated. If he were to say he posses- 
ses an acute mediocrity mind with clear logical reasoning powers, 
an accurate judgement, great strength of memory, a good education, 
and extensive information, the hearer or reader would immediately 
understand that he intended to describe a first rate mediocrity intel- 
lect. Is it not evident that if the writer or speaker would describe 
the particular powers and acquirements which the mind he was 
describing, possessed, with logical clearness, minuteness and precision, 
that it would prevent the hearer or reader from forming such vague, 
indefinite and delusive ideas with regard to the powers of mind and 
intellectual qualifications possessed by those of whom they hear or 
read. Is it not also evident that if the descriptions given of the 
powers of the human mind, and of the qualifications of the human 
mind are always given with sufiicient logical minuteness, precision 
and clearness to be clearly understood as conveying a reasonably 
definite and certain description of the powers of mind described, 
and the intellectual qualifications described, that it will greatly tend 
to relieve the public mind from the delusion imder which it labors 
with regard to the intellectual powers and intellectual qualifications 
not only of our lawyers, but of our public men and fellow citizens 
in general. If every man who undertakes to describe the intel- 
lectual powers and intellectual qualifications of any one, is compelled 
to put his description in such a tangible shape as to be understood 
with certainty, or, if he docs not do so, is merely to be understood 
as having used a senseless and unmeaning expression, I am per- 



41 

suaded we shall have made a very considerable advance towards 
enlightening the public mind on a subject on which the public very 
much need light. I am not prepared to say that if the aforesaid sys- 
tem should be adopted ; it would at once entirely banish confusion 
and delusion from the public mind, with regard to the powers of the 
minds of our fellow citizens, and with regard to the qualifications 
of their minds, but it would be the inception of a system that would 
finally accomplish that object, if not entirely, at least to an extent 
that would indeed be of great advantage to the community. The 
writer or speaker should describe each intellectual power and each 
intellectual acquirement separately, for instance: if he possesses 
an acute mind, say so; if he possesses a comprehensive mind, say 
so ; if he possesses great strength of memory, say so ; if he possesses 
an accurate judgment, say so; if he possesses clear and precise logi- 
cal reasoning powers, say so ; if he possesses a good education, say 
so ; or if he is well educated in some one branch but aot in other 
branches, say so ; if he possesses extensive information on some one 
branch but not on other branches, say so ; describe each item sepa- 
rately, particularly and distinctly. 

I will mention some examples by way of illustrating the difiercnce 
between intellects of the highest ■order and mediocrity intellects: 
Chief Justice Marshall possessed a first class legal intellect; Chancel- 
lor Kent a first class mediocrity legal intellect. The repeated and 
strong eulogies of Judge Story on Chancellor Kent, have utterly 
failed in convincing me that he possessed any thing more than a 
remarkable mediocrity intellect. I refer the reader to the decisions 
of Chancellor Kent, and to his writings on the law, particularly on 
constitutional law ; and to the decisions of Chief Justice Marshall on 
questions of law, and particularly on questions of constitutional 
law. I advise the reader to study carefully their reasons and ideas 
on those subjects, and I think he will be very likely to discover the 
difference between a mediocrity intellect and an intellect of the 
highest order. I will mention Cheif Justice Gibson of Pennsyl- 
vania, by way of illustrating my meaning when I use the word clear 
in illustrating and describing logical reasoning powers; it would be 
difficult to say that the reasoning powers of Chief Justice Gibson 
were not logical, and yet they were certainly net clear logical rea- 
soning powers such as Chief Justice Marshall possessed. 

If my theories are correct, the reader who has read the speeches 
and messages of Mr. Van Buren, will have but little difficulty in 
G 



42 

coming to tlie conclusion that lie must have been, from the start in 
his profession as a lawyer, a match for the ablest of his competitors 
in abilit}^, and his great industry renders it certain that he was a 
safe lawyer from the start in point of learning, and Avas doubtless a 
thoroughly well read lawyer at a match earlier period in life than ma- 
ny of those members of the profession who have been most eminent 
for learning and ability. At twenty-one he would probably have 
been a match in learning and ability for most learned and able law- 
yers of thirty years of age. The good fortune of Mr. Van Buren 
in obtaining business in his profession appears to have been fully 
er|ual to his merit ; he obtained a steady run of business from the 
start, which never fell off but constantly increased until he aban- 
doned the bar, which he did more than twenty years ago. In some 
years he made almost, or fully, ten thousand dollars. Very few 
lawyers, indeed, have the good fortune to obtain a steady run of 
business from the start, and those few are seldom remarkable for 
ability. In fact Mr. Van Buren up to 1840 appears to have been 
as fortunate as Scylla. 

The course of Mr. Van Buren as a politician from the first indi- 
cated, in a manner not to be mistaken or misunderstood by any one 
capable of understanding his thoughts, his political character. He 
appears to have given his first vote in 1804, when, in connexion with 
the great body of the democratic party, he voted for Morgan Lewis 
for governor of New York, in opposition to Aaron Burr. It will be 
recollected that Col. Burr had bestowed many fascinating attentions 
on him when a law student. Mr. Van Ness, with whom he read law 
in the city of New York, was an intimate personal friend, and a 
devoted political friend of Col. Burr. Several of the leading dem- 
ocrats of Columbia county, among whom Avere some of Mr Van 
Buren's first friends, voted for Col. Burr. Some of the biographers 
of Mr; Van Buren attribute his course on that occasion to high 
toned and honorable political principles exclusively. It is more than 
probable that his political convictions were sincere against the cause 
of Col. Burr, yet I venture to say that the reader would not form a 
correct opinion of the political character of Mr Van Buren who 
should imagine that if his political convictions and personal predi- 
lections had been in favor of Col. Burr, he would have voted for him. 
Mr. Van Buren knew that by voting against Col. Burr he would ingra- 
tiate himself with the democratic party and acquire their confidence) 
;ind strengthen himself for future political and professional advance- 



43 

ment with that party. In 1807 the democratic party were again 
divided hetwecn Lewis and Tompkins ; Mr. Van Buren, acting with 
the regular organization and the majority, gave bis support to 
Tompkins, who was elected. He was still, the reader will perceive, 
on the surest way to the patronage and favor of the party. In 1808 
he was appointed surrogate of the county, an office which he held 
until February, 1813, when the federal party having obtained a 
majority in that branch of the Legislature which controlled the 
appointing power, he was removed. 

The ability, zeal and activity evinced by Mr. Van Buren as a politi- 
cian, during the administration of Jefferson, naturally drew upon him 
the sarcasms and clamorous abuse of the political leaders and journals 
of the federal party. A young man, however, conscious that he 
possessed a powerful intellect, and that he had already achieved per- 
manent and stable success at the bar, and who was enabled by his 
capacity to discern that he was travelling with unerring steps on the 
high way to professional distinction and wealth, with a fair prospect 
for the highest political positions of his country, might well afford 
to take, and doubtless did take, the buffetings of his political adver- 
saries with a philosophic calmness and placidity of temper worthy 
of all imitation and of all praise, in this restless and uneasy world. 

The patronage which Mr. Van Buren received from the demo- 
cratic party in his profession from the start, was well calculated to 
strengthen his attachments '^in favor of the men and measures of 
that party, and to stimulate his zeal in their support, particularly 
when taken in connexion with the buffetings which he received from 
his political adversaries. Soon after receiving the appointment of 
surroo-ate he removed to the city of Hudson, and soon rose to a 
leading and lucrative practice at the bar. Elisha Williams appears 
to have been his great legal and political adversary at that bar; 
according to the best accounts within my reach, Mr. Van Buren was 
fully his equal as a jury lawyer, a department which was supposed 
to be the forte of Elisha Williams, and in which he was supposed to 
be unsurpassed. According to the best descriptions of Mr. Van 
Buren's forensic displays, he appears to have approached the minds 
and hearts of juries with the most artful, ingenious, glowing and 
graceful eloquence, united to a logical clearness and force of rea- 
soning unsurpassed, if equalled, by the ablest of his competitors. 
Mr. Williams and ]\L'. Van Buren, the two leaders of their respec- 
tive parties and of their profession in the city of Hudson, Tyhile they 



44 

extended towards each other all courtesy and honor in their profes- 
sional intercourse, carried on a most animated and untiring contest 
for professional fame, success and superiority. It is certain that 
Mr. Van Buren united the most consummate art with great ability 
in his addresses to both courts and juries. 

In 1806 Mr. Van Buren married a lady who was a distant relation 
of his : Miss Hannah Hoes. He exhibited the most ardent love 
and attachment for her at all times, and under all circumstances, up 
to the time of her death in 1818, by consumption. He had four 
sons by her, and has since continued unmarried. I have on more 
than one occasion remarked the pride and affection with which 
young women regard a young and single male relative of great 
promise in intellect, or of strong personal attractions or other good 
qualities. A feeling of family pride makes them more susceptible 
to impressions from his charms than other women. A young man 
with the mental and personal attractions and prospects of Mr. Van 
Buren might well have charmed other women than Hannah Hoes, 
and certainly the match of that young lady was eminently fortunate. 
Could any thing be more fascinating to the mind of a young woman 
of a warm and generous nature and just and womanly feelings, than 
a young man possessing an intellect of the highest order, a comely 
person, an honorable character, a most amiable and agreeable dis- 
position and the most fascinating manners, united with an industry 
and prudence that rendered his continued rise and success at the bar 
certain, and an intellect that rendered his future prospects for the 
highest station in his country, of the first order; and a young 
man, withall, that loved her with the most ardent and devoted love 
and affection. She had an almost certain prospect for comfort, 
wealth and respectability of position, with a reasonable prospect 
of the highest gratification of the ambitious feelings which a wife 
might entertain for the official position and fame of her husband. 
She might reasonably have hoped that he might reach the highest 
station in his country, whilst he would avoid the error into which 
so many great statesmen have fallen, of neglecting to provide for 
the comfort and independence of their families; indeed, his prudence 
rendered it certain that he would provide for the comfort and inde- 
pendence of his family with as much permanence and safety as the 
affairs of this changeable world would admit of. We, of the out- 
side world cannot look on Mr. Van Buren as bis wife would do, we 
can sec hia faults both private and pu1)lir ; she, however, would 



45 

neither see nor experience any tiling of the sort. The amiable dis- 
position, the kindly nature, the discretion and good sense of Mr. 
Van Buren rendered his conduct perfectly unexceptionable in domes- 
tic life. Whatever disguises he may have "worn in public, as a poli- 
tician, and however questionable his motives may have sometimes been 
when acting in that capacity, there cannot be any question that he was 
uniformly kind in his intercourse with his wife and children, and per- 
fectly sincere in his professions of attachment and regard for them. 
She or they never saw or felt his faults. She had the pleasure of 
beholding before her a prospect of a social position of the first class, 
and permanent wealth and comfort for herself and children; whilst 
she fondly hoped that Mr. Van Buren would leave behind him an 
honored name to his decendants. She might well use an expression 
that I once heard used by a lady to her betrothed, who remarked 
that she looked as if she was very happy, "it is no wonder I am 
happy, I have every thing my heart can wish for." I think Han- 
nah Hoes had every thing her heart could wish for. It is all true 
that men as amiable and kind as Mr. Van Buren, might possibly be 
found in private life, possessing as large a share and a larger share 
of wealth with which to procure its comforts and enjoyments; but 
it would certainly lower the estimation in which I hold the ladies if 
I thought them insensible to the charms of a superior intellect, and 
to the fame and position which such an intellect can achieve. The 
ladies would be ignoble, indeed, in their sentiments, if they could 
feel as well satisfied with the physical comforts of life alone, as with 
those comforts united to a most desirable social position. I should 
think a woman sadly destitute of intelligence and correct principles, 
if she was insensible to the fame of her husband and the fascinating 
charms of a refined and intellectual society. Whatever the ladies 
may think of Mr. Van Buren as a politician, I think they will 
admit that he made one of their number comfortable and happy; 
she did not, however, live long to enjoy her good fortune; she died 
while he was yet a young man, enjoying the flowing tide of profes- 
sional and political success. People who have never witnessed the 
intercourse of such a man as Mr. Van Buren with his family, can 
scarcely form an adequate conception of the exquisite suavity and 
kindness of his intercourse with them. It is scarcely possible to 
imagine the almost unerring acuteness and sagacity which foresees 
and provides for every want and every reasonable wish: evincing 
more pleasure in providing for thot^e wants and wishes than the 



46 

recipients of those favors display at having their wants and wishes 
provided for. There is no question that the enjoyments of the 
recipients are greatly enhanced by having their wants and wishes 
provided for in a manner so fascinating and becoming. 

Any man who possesses a powerful and well organized mind must 
inevitably admire the great good fortune of this young man; it 
would have been scarcely possible to have gratified a just ambition 
in a manner more fascinating and agreeable. Conscious of pos- 
sessing intellectual powers and acquirements which could not fail 
to place him among the ablest of our statesmen and lawyers, his 
opportunities for display, and the positions from which he might 
display those powers and acquirements to advantage, were most 
abundant and appropriate. When placed in such positions as Mr. 
Van Buren was placed in, he well knew the public would not fail 
to put a just estimate on his powers and acquirements. When in 
addition to those considerations we reflect that he had already 
achieved pecuniary independence and comfort, and that he might 
anticipate with reasonable, indeed with almost absolute certainty, 
the future acquisition of as much wealth as a reasonable man could 
desire. We cannot avoid the conviction that the circumstances by 
which he was surrounded were singularly and peculiarly happy. 

He is said to have possessed an ardent and ambitious mind ; he 
certainly evinced the greatest industry and perseverance. We can 
imagine the delighted and self-satisfied feelings with which he would 
return to his home, after a successful forensic display, stimulated 
by the admiration and applause of his friends and the public, and 
conscious that a most devoted and affectionate Avife awaited his arri- 
val, to participate in his joys, and to stimulate and encourage his 
desire for future efforts and still greater success. AYe are to bear 
in mind, that admiration and applause were not the only rewards of 
Mr. Van Buren, The substantial rewards of life accompanied those 
agreeable stimulants. It is not very probable that his forensic 
efforts were often made the subjects of conversation at home; he 
knew, however, that his wife was aware of his success, and fully 
sympathized with his aspirations and hopes. Doubtless, every 
thing he did, was right in her eyes, and every thing he said was 
regarded as possessing oracular wisdom. Although a right minded 
young man would be more anxious to succeed in life, for the pur- 
pose of gratifyng his wife, than any other person. Yet, it is also 
a source of the most heartfelt satisfaction, to be able to gratify the 
wishes and expectations of parents, relatives and friends. 



47 

Mr. Van Bureii must have enjoyed this happiness in an eminent 
degree. What ambitious, ardent and noble mind, wouhl not glow 
with delight, at such a prospect. It would gratify in the highest 
degree, the impulses of a noble mind, and of a generous heart. It is 
very probable, he enjoyed his success the more highly, on account of 
the humble position in life, in which he was born. It gratified his 
ambition and his pride, to be enabled to force himself by his talents 
and success, into the first classes of society, more than if he had 
been born in those classes, and had inherited wealth enough to 
enable him to maintain his position. It is very probable, even at 
that early period, in the history of the republic that his chances of 
success in the paths he had chosen, were greatly enhanced by the 
humbleness of his birth, and his want of wealth and aristocratic 
connexions. It is very probable that he was much indebted for his 
success at the bar, to the fact, that he was a Dutchman. 

Mr. Van Buren appears to have supported the administration of 
Jefferson, from first to last. He zealously defended the course of 
^George Clinton, who gave his casting vote as Vice President of the 
United Sates in 1811, against the bill for renewing the charter of 
the first bank of the United States. Mr. Gallatin, then Secretary 
of the Treasury, recommended the renewal of the charter, and 
William H. Crawford, sustained the measure in the Senate. Mr. 
Van Buren joined with others, in recommending those two gentle- 
men for President and Vice President of the United States in 1824. 
I am so thoroughly satisfied, with regard to the evil tendencies of 
banking, as practised in the United States, and in most other civ- 
ilized countries, that I feel disposed to dwell at some length on the 
subject. 

I shall commence by laying down two propositions that are dem- 
onstrated by the ablest writers on political economy, with mathe- 
matical clearness and precision. Namely, that it would be all the 
same to a people, whether their business was transacted on a cur- 
rency of one hundred millions, or on a currency of two hundred 
millions. If a man could purchase an article if the currency was 
one hundred millions, for five dollars, and the currency were in- 
^ creased to two hundred millions, he would be obliged to pay ten 
dollars for the same article. It would cost him precisely the same 
amount of his produce or labor, to procure five dollars, when the 
currency amounted to one hundred millions, as it would cost him of 
his produce or labor to procure ten dollars, when the currency 



^^ 



48 

ainounted to two hundred millions, so that the result would be vir- 
tually the same to him. Five dollars would be quite as valuable to 
him, when the currency amounted to one hundred millions, as ten 
dollars would be, when the currency amounted to two hundred mil- 
lions. It has been repeatedly demonstrated, in a manner not to be 
disputed by any intelligent mind, that commodities of every kind, 
increase nominally in price, in proportion to the increase of the cur- 
rency of the country. It would certainly make a difference between 
debtor and creditor. 

If a man had contracted debts when the currency amounted to 
one hundred millions, and the currency should be increased to two 
hundred millions, when he was called upon to pay those debts, he 
would certainly, virtually pay those debts at fifty cents on the dol- 
lar, because it would cost him only one half as much of his labor or 
produce, or property, to procure the necessary amount of money 
with which to pay those debts when due, that it would have cost 
him of his labor, or produce, or property, to have procured the same 
amount of money, at the time when those debts were contracted, if 
in such an instance the creditor would virtually lose one half of his 
debt. It is equally certain, that if a debt were contracted when the 
currency amounted to two hundred millions, and the debtor were 
compelled to pay that debt, when the currency was reduced to one 
hundred millions, he would virtually pay two dollars for one, be- 
cause it would cost him as much of his labor, or produce, or prop- 
erty, to procure one dollar, when the currency was reduced to one 
hundred millions, as it would have cost him of his labor, or produce, 
or property, to have procured two dollars, when the currency 
amounted to two hundred millions. The creditor in the latter in- 
stance, would virtually receive two dollars for one. 

I think I can show, that if gold and silver were adopted as the 
only circulating mediums of the country, that the change in the 
amount of the currency of the country would be brought about so 
gradually, that it would be imperceptible; while a much greater 
difference is caused between debtor and creditor, than that which 1 
have just suggested, by each of the great periodical monetary con- 
vulsions which occur in our country, and throughout the greater 
part of the commercial world, and which can be clearly traced to 
banking and paper money as their cause. The ablest writers on 
Political Economy, who advocate or palliate banking and paper 
money, demonstrate that a great scarcity of gold and silver, such 



49 

as will produce general commercial distress, never can occur in any 
civilized country, if paper money is not used in that country. If 
paper money is not used in a country, the moment gold and sil- 
ver become scarce prices •will fall in proportion to that scarcity, and 
gold and silver will instantly be sent into that country, from other 
parts of the world; because it can be more profitably invested 
where there is a scarcity of gold and silver, than where there is an 
abundance of those commodities. We witnessed a scene of that kind 
in the United States, a few years ago, when prices had fallen so 
low, although the balance of trade was greatly against the United 
States, and remittances were needed in England and elsewhere, to 
pay their debts ; large sums of gold and silver were imported from 
England into the United States, because gold and silver could be 
more profitably invested, at that time, in the United States, than in 
England, or, in other Avords, gold and silver, at that time, could 
purchase more of labor, produce or property in the United States, 
in proportion to its intrinsic value, than elsewhere. The foregoing 
propositions have been demonstrated by the writers on Political 
Economy, with as much certainty as that twice one makes two ; and 
it is paying a poor compliment to the human understanding, that 
any intelligent man, particularly any intelligent statesman, can be 
found, who doubts the accuracy of those demonstrations. 

The writers on Political Economy show, in a manner not to be 
disputed or contradicted, that if the people of any country will take 
paper money instead of gold and silver, it will soon drive gold and 
silver out of the country. This proposition is demonstrated so 
clearly by the history of paper money, as given by the writers 
on Political Economy, that any intelligent man who reads those 
works, can scarcely fail to be convinced of its truth and 
accuracy. The great masses of the people, however, never read 
such works, and the natural reasoning powers of a man are not 
likely to point out to him such a result, unless his mind has been 
enlightened by the historical experiences of all attempts at using 
paper money, in large quantities, as a substitute for gold and silver, 
and not merely using paper money as the representative of gold 
and silver, dollar for dollar. It has been shown, beyond all doubt, /^^ 
by the commercial histories of Holland and Cuba, that great com- 
mercial convulsions never occur where gold and silver are the only 
moneys, and paper is not used as such. 

It is true, that in Holland they had a bank of deposit, to which a 

7 



60 

man might take his gold and silver, and deposit it, and a check 
would be given him for the amount, -which check would pass in the 
community as money; the bank, however, retained in its vaults an 
amount of gold and silver equal to the amount of its checks in cir- 
culation, dollar for dollar, and did not risk its capital by discount- 
ing notes, or in any other way. Under the hard money system, 
Holland attained as high a degree of civilization, wealth, and com- 
mercial and manufacturing prosperity, as any other country in the 
world; showing by her example, that banking and paper money do 
not tend to produce any such results, by way of atoning for the 
many calamities and misfortunes which they bring upon a country. 

It will be perceived by every reader who has any knowledge of 
banking, as it exists in the United States, that it is a system differ- 
ing entirely from the bank of Amsterdam. In those instances in 
the United States, in which the banks are conducted on what is 
generally supposed to be a sound and safe system, and which really 
is the soundest and safest system in operation in the United States, 
a parcel of men get a charter from the State, to establish a bank 
when a certain amount of stock shall be subscribed and paid in, say 
one million of dollars; those charters generally exempt the stock- 
holders from any further liability, in the event of the failure of the 
bank, except the loss of their stock. There is seldom any limitation 
by law upon them, with regard to the amount of notes they shall issue. 
They generally issue three or four dollars in notes for every dollar 
of gold and silver in their vaults ; of course it is wholly impossible 
for them to pay all their notes at once, if demanded in gold and 
silver; and whenever a general run upon the banks takes place, they 
must inevitably suspend specie payments. A general alarm in the 
country, with regard to their stability, is almost certain to bring about 
such a result. The reader will perceive at once, how, by this issue of 
three or four dollars in paper for one dollar in real money, the curren- 
cy becomes inflated, and the nominal amount of money is increased, 
producing an unnatural nominal rise in prices, until the banks lose 
their credit. It then has the effect of reducing the amount of the 
currency below the amount of gold and silver originally in the 
country ; because the issue of paper money always drives gold and 
silver from the country, and prevents the influx of gold and silver 
into the country. 

Perhaps it is an idea not unworthy of consideration, that if a 
country commences banking, and the issue of paper money, on a 



51 

gold and silver capital uf one hundred millions, and increases 
the nominal amount of money in the country, from one hundred 
millions to four hundred millions, by the issue of four dollars in 
paper for each dollar in gold and silver in their vaults, the people 
really think themselves rich, in proportion to the amount of money 
nominally in the country; and being disposed to expend a certain 
portion of their wealth in the purchase of foreign commodities, they 
buy a much larger portion of those commodities than they would 
otherwise do, the system begetting national extravagance. Foreign- 
ers will only take their pay in gold and silver, or the produce of the 
country; so I tliink it is very evident, an inflated paper currency has 
a tendency to drain a country of its gold and silver, and to impoverish 
the people 'by producing national extravagance. I remember an 
occasion when the paper money was inflated to such a pitch, that 
prices rose nominally so high that wheat was imported into the city 
of New York, from Europe, although the United States had a large 
surplus of the article to spare and to export. Such a state of things 
could not last long; a terrible monetary convulsion soon came upon 
the country, and reduced the currency at the rate of from five or 
six dollars to one dollar. A much greater change than could possi- 
bly take place, if paper money were at once abolished by laAv, and 
fold and silver were to become the only circulating mediums of the 
country. 

Great monetary convulsions are, however, only portions of the 
evils of banking and paper money. Perhaps the people would like 
to know on what foundation this circulating medium rests, which 
they receive and pass as money. The banks lend their notes, almost 
exclusively, to the merchants, and receive the notes of the merchants 
in exchange for them. I shall now proceed to examine the situa- 
tions of the merchants ; I shall begin with Boston. It is stated, 
that during a long period of years, ninety-five out of one hundred 
of the merchants on Long Wharf, in Boston, have either failed or 
died poor. John S. Skinner stated, (and no man was better in- 
formed on the subject,) that ninety-eight out of one hundred of the 
merchants of Baltimore have failed. Judging from those statements, 
it is more than probable that a large majority of the merchants in 
our large commercial cities are always hopelessly insolvent. They 
frequently continue in business, and weather the storm for years 
after they are in a state of insolvency, which renders all hope of 
recovery almost impossible. They do not all fail at once, although 



52 

every year usually witnesses the failure of a considerable number 
of them. Inasmuch as the banks generally require an endorser, 
and both drawer and endorser seldom fail at the same time, unless 
during some great commercial convulsion or pressure, those banks 
which are prudently conducted are generally the last to lose, al- 
though they often meet with losses, which finally produce their 
own insolvency. 

Now, I would ask, are the people really aware, when they receive 
a bank note as money, that they are receiving an obligation really 
not as safe as the note of a solvent neighbor would be? — and is it 
right, or reasonable, or just, that the money of any country should 
rest on a foundation so unstable, even leaving out of the considera- 
tion the obvious danger, that banks may by a general panic and 
alarm be compelled |to suspend specie payments, and their notes 
become wholly inconvertible into specie. Even that portion of the 
writers on Political Economy who advocate, or at least palliate and 
excuse banking and paper money, demonstrate that the laborers 
and property holders of a country could procure the same amount 
of gold and silver for their labor or property, which they receive 
in bank notes for their labor or property, dollar for dollar, and 
that they would then have a commodity which would possess an 
intrinsic value. They demonstrate, in fact, that the issuers of paper 
money are the only gainers by the transaction. They have a the- 
ory, that the nation in the aggregate is a gainer by the issue of 
paper money; because, they say, that by substituting paper money 
for gold and silver, the nation is enabled to spend its gold and silver, 
which has an intrinsic value, in purchasing commodities from the 
rest of the world, and is enabled to supply its place with paper, 
which has not any intrinsic value, and which, according to their 
theory, adds so much to the national capital. They, however, ad- 
mit that if other nations adopt the same course, with regard to the 
issue of paper money, there is not then any gain, even in a national 
point of view. 

It is now well known, that nearly all civilized nations have re- 
course to paper money, as a substitute, to a certain extent, for gold 
:ind silver. Consequently, according to their own theory, there is 
no longer any profit in the transaction, unless we derive an advan- 
tage by the issue of paper money over barbarous nations, who do 
not use that commodity. It must be admitted, however, that this 
delusive idea of holding their own with the rest of the world, and 



53 

of issuing paper money to prevent a neigliboring state or country 
from making them pay interest on foreign paper money, (which is 
an article without intrinsic value,) has had a great influence in mis- 
leading our rulers on the subject of banking. I shall endeavor to 
show that this ingenious theory is without a solid foundation. In 
former times, in our large cities, before banking was introduced or 
had got thoroughly imder weigh, business was much more generally 
prosperous, than it has been since the introduction of banking, or 
since it has got fairly under weigh. I believe a statistical examina- 
tion of the subject would show that five large fortunes were accu- 
mulated at that time, in proportion to the population, for one 
accumulated now; and that five small fortunes were accumulated, 
in proportion to the population, for one accumulated since the intro- 
duction of banking, or since banking has thoroughly infused itself 
into the business of the community. An examination of the state 
of the business communities, in those countries that have no banks, 
and whose business men do not receive bank accommodations, at 
the present day, will show nearly as great a difference in point of 
solvency and in point of prosperity, between those communities as 
has been suggested above. 

Wherever they have banks or bank accommodations, there are 
large numbers of bankruptcies among the merchants and business 
men, and very few of them are successful in accumulating wealth, 
or even an independence ; on the contrary, where there are no 
banks, or bank accommodations, the very reverse is the ease; 
there are few bankruptcies among the business men, and many of 
them are prosperous. Where business is in a wholesome and natu- 
ral state, and not stimulated and disorganized by banking, prosper- 
ity is the usual reward and natural result of industry, attention, 
skill and economy. If I am asked to point out the precise ways in 
which the losses occur, I will answer, that the banking system is so 
interwoven with the private operations of life, that it cannot be done. 

It is admitted by the ablest and most thoroughly informed men, 
that to ascertain how the great masses of mankind live, has always 
bafiled the most acute, powerful and well-informed intellects. I 
take it for granted, however, that the actual general results ought 
to be satisfactory demonstrations ; namely, the prosperity of the 
business men, where there are no banks, and where they do not 
possess banking facilities, and the fact, that where they do possess 
banks and banking facilities, business is no longer steady and pros- 



54 

perous. The operations of private life, are so various, minute and 
intricate, that to point them all out, with clearness and certainty, 
is beyond the reach of any intellect, however penetrating, or any 
information, however minute and full. 

It is of course, impossible to point out all the various, minute and 
intricate operations of banking, on society ; it is so connected and 
interwoven with the various minute and intricate operations and 
movements of private life. If it is an advantage to a country to 
accumulate capital, I think I can show that banking does more to 
waste capital, and to prevent its accumulation, than any other cause. 
hi the first place, it destroys the profits of business, and causes a 
waste and loss of the capital employed in business, by over compe- 
tition, thrusting vast numbers of men into business on fictitious cap- 
ital, who generally, not only waste and lose the capital placed in 
their own hands, but cause the legitimate portions of the business 
community to lose their capital, also, by destroying the profits of 
business ; they soon become insolvent themselves, and ruin their 
legitimate competitors in business, by selling their goods at less than 
cost, for the purpose of raising money, to meet their notes with 
punctuality, not having anything of their own to lose, they do busi- 
ness with a desperate, gambling, carelessness, that no one can form 
any adequate conception of, who has not witnessed it. In the next 
place, families who inherit their resources in bank stocks, frequently 
lose the accumulations of their ancestors and their own accumula- 
tions, by the failures of those concerns. 

The late bank of the United States, swept away, no less a sum 
than thirty-five millions of dollars at once. Men who have capaci- 
ties which enable them to accumulate fortunes, frequently lose them 
by investing them in bank stocks ; their minds are unable to follow 
the comprehensive, minute and intricate operations of the system, 
and they will, through boards of directors, lend their funds to men 
that they would not trust in their private capacities. I believe that 
the people of the United States, arc the most energetic and indus- 
trious people in the world; and that their earnings are greater in 
proportion to their numbers, than the earnings of any other people, 
and would be preserved with more economy, than the earnings of 
any other people , and that their accumulations of capital would be 
greater in proportion to their numbers, than those of any other 
people, if those earnings and those accumulations of capital were 
not wasted by the banking system, and the consequences which the 
banking system produces. 



55 

The banking system appears to devour with increasing, remorse- 
less and insatiable voracity, the accumulations of capital, and the 
wages of labor. Wherever it is established, the rich and substantial 
business men soon disappear, to be replaced by bankrupts and 
swindlers. If the men of capital manage to retain their property 
for life, it is generally lost in business by their descendants. It is 
much to be regretted, that those families in the United States, who 
inherit property, should be stimulated by a species of ambition, to 
engage in commercial and manufacturing pursuits. Commercial and 
manufacting pursuits, could generally be conducted with more pru- 
dence and safety, by men who have had their wits sharpened by the 
experiences of poverty in early life. Agriculture is the safest em- 
ployment for those who inherit fortunes, and if they were to bring 
their good educations, refined manners, and kind, social habits, into 
agricultural society, they would greatly elevate the moral and intel- 
lectual standards of our people, and give prodigious impulses to 
civilization and humanity. They could generally invest their capi- 
tal safely and profitably in agriculture, while such occupations 
would afford the educated and the refined, opportunities of raising 
their families in health and strength, and with habits of virtue and 
industry, which would go far towards securing their future inde- 
pendence and happiness in life. How very difi"erent the fates of 
most families who inherit property, would be, if they were to adopt 
that course, instead of pursuing the professions or commerce. 

But what are now usually the fates of families who inherit large 
estates? One brother perhaps, goes into commercial or manufac- 
turing business, gets involved, becomes insolvent, and having 
become callous by his constant habit of deceiving the public, with 
regard to his circumstances, under the credit system, winds up, by 
involving often, his whole family in ruin, as endorsers, securities, or 
creditors. How often docs a father or rich relative, pay for his 
liberality in starting a son or nephew in business, by the loss of his 
whole fortune, while, if the same biped had been put to farming, he 
would probably have rejoiced the hearts of his ancestors, by his 
success, and would probably have raised a virtuous and healthy oiF- 
spring, in prosperity and comfort, to gladden their old age ; while 
if he marries at all, as a business man, it is more than probable, 
they would see himself and his children a species of half paupers 
and be compelled to leave the world, beholding their descendants in 
that most melancholy and hapless predicament. 



56 

I am sensible that refinement does not always accompany wealth; 
rich families are sometimes very rough and brutal in their manners 
and in their intercourse with society, and poor families often evince 
a. great deal of refinement and good feeling. Refinement, however, 
generally accompanies good educations, and families that do not 
enjoy such advantages will seldom retain their refined and kind 
social habits long. There is a great deal of refinement in all our 
county towns and large cities ; it is, however, generally confined to 
the educated classes, or the families of the educated classes; for 
instance, the lawyers, doctors and clergymen are generally men of 
education and refinement, and their families are generally well edu- 
cated and remarkable for refinement and kind social feelings in their 
intercourse with society. Formerly, the leading politicians and their 
families exhibited a large share of refinement and of kind social 
feeling in their intercourse with society. The families of the 
aforesaid classes usually receive educations quite as good as the 
educations received by the families of the rich; and in addition, en- 
joy the advantages of the advices and examples of educated and 
refined parents. But the truth is, that the educations received by 
the young people are only primary educations, and unless improved 
by a judicious course of reading afterwards, will be of little value, 
and will give them but small portions of useful knowledge. Useful 
information, however extensive, never works right without a good 
primary education. It is absolutely necessary, therefore, that peo. 
pie should receive good primary educations on which to build or 
acquire extensive useful information. 

A commercial paper in Cincinnati published an article not long 
ago in which it was shown by statistics, that the whole race of mer- 
chants disappear in twenty years. This statement confirms my 
conjecture that a large majority of the merchants in our large cities 
are at all times hopelessly insolvent. This statement will not appear 
so incredible to the community when they reflect that insolvent mer- 
chants generally linger on in a state of hopeless insolvency for 
years before they finally fail. There are so many facilities for buy- 
ing goods on credit, and selling them for cash in an underhand way 
at less than cost, that they often manage to continue to make prompt 
payments until, with a debt of, perhaps, fifty or one hundred thou- 
sand dollars hanging over them, they finally fail, without having met 
with any extraordinary disasters, and are really unable to pay twen- 
ty cents on the dollar of their debts. Some of them fail for sums 



amounting to half a million, or even a million of dollars. T\Yenty 
or thirty thousand dollars is considered a small failure. There is a 
general impression that swindling is almost universal on such occa- 
sions, and that they almost always manage to conceal something 
from their creditors. As a general rule, I have no doubt this charge 
is true ; it is equally true, however, that the amounts thus concealed 
are generally so small, that insolvent debtors, with few exceptions, 
are soon reduced to extreme poverty. 

I hope I shall succeed in showing the community that the evils 
which the banking system brings upon the community aie so numer- 
ous that, notwithstanding their rooted prejudices in favor of that 
system, they may be induced gradually to..abandon it; more espe- 
cially when they reflect, that the ablest advocate of banking has 
shown that tliey give quite as much of their labor, or produce, or 
property for a five dollar note, as they would give of their labor, or 
produce, or property for five dollars in gold or silver; and that 
no human being is benefited, except the manufacturers of paper 
money. I am persuaded that even the manufacturers of paper 
money are not gainers by the business, and that they might employ 
their time and their talents in some other occupation, with more 
profit to themselves and in ways much less injurious to the commu- 
nity. The banking system aifects the prosperity of the business 
community every where throughout the United States, to some ex- 
tent. Where they have no banks, the store keepers usually receive 
credit from merchants, who are accommodated by the banks ; and 
this circumstance, although it does not entirely destroy the profits 
of business, where they haye no banks or direct banking facilities, 
diminishes those profits, and renders business less certain and steady 
than it was formerly, before the banking system had been introduced, 
or had got fairly under weigh. I think it can be demonstrated that 
the merchants lose more than they make, take them in the aggre> 
gate, where ever the banking system has got fairly under weigh. We 
will consider, for example, the Baltimore calculation, namely: that 
ninety-eight out of every hundred fail ; on an everage, they have lost 
at least twenty thousand dollars each, either of their own money 
or of the money of others; some greatly exceed that amount, others 
fall short of it; (I think I have placed the average too low;) that 
would make a loss of nearly two millions of dollars ; a larger sum, 
I venture to say, than the two successful merchants have made. 
And be it remembered, that in this calculation I have not made anv 

8 



68 

allowance for the loss of time and labor, on the part of the unsuc- 
cessful merchants. The demoralizmg tendency of the system is 
most appalling; those merchants, almost without exception, are 
largely in debt and a vast majority of them insolvent; and men who 
are deeply in debt, and particularly those who are insolvent, are 
constantly in the habit of misrepresenting their circumstances to 
their creditors and to the public. Who ever heard of a merchant 
(although he might for years have known he never could pay one 
dollar for every five he was in del)t) acknowledging, either to his 
creditors or the public, that he was unable to pay his debts, until the 
final catastrophe had arrived, and he had actually failed? It is well 
known to every person acquainted with the subject, that the mer- 
chants are every day in the habit of practising gross frauds upon 
the community, with regard to their circumstances. Those practices 
soon undermine the moral and religious principles and honorable 
feelings of men, and their bad examples have a tendency to corrupt 
all who associate and deal with them, in the same way. I have 
already made an estimate that a large majority of the merchants in 
our large cities arc at all times hopeless bankrupts; although the 
public are probably aware that there are many insolvents among 
them, they are unable to discover who are insolvent. If the insol- 
vent merchants were generall/ known to be so, it would, of course, 
destroy their credit at once. 

It may be alleged that some of these remarks may apply to the 
credit system as well as to the banking system, and that large por- 
tions of the evils complained of, are directly caused by the credit 
system. There is probably some truth in this conjecture, and yet 
I am inclined to think that the credit system would settle down into 
a very rational and useful system for society, if it was not greatly 
stimulated, aggravated, and increased by the banking system and 
paper money, particularly by the banking system. The foregoing 
calculations show how very unfortunate it is for our people, that 
such vast numbers of them engage in commercial pursuits. I ven- 
ture to say that seventy-five out of one hundred of those men who 
fail in business, would have made judicious and successful farmers 
on the same amount of capital which they took into business and 
lost. We will say that on an average they took two thousand dol- 
lars each into business. We will suppose the same men to have 
gone west, and to have purchased, we will say, one thousand acres 
of land each, at government prices, namely, one dollar and twenty- 



59 

five cents an acre. The remainder of the two thousand dollars 
would be sufficient to put up buildings, stock the farm, and clear 
enough land to support a family. We will suppose the men to have 
good lands, situated in a good region for health and fertility of soil. 
Surrounded by such circumstances, it is probable that in ten years, 
their farms would be worth twenty or thirty thoasand dollars each; 
whilst those who might happen to locate where a town would spring 
up, would make large fortunes. 

The great masses of those men who fail in business, are not by 
any means destitute of the necessary prudence, industry and discre- 
tion, to enable them to make good farmers. Indeed, habits of in- 
dustry and economy, and good management, are so essential to 
credit, that very few of the merchants in our large cities are so des- 
titute of those qualities, as to render them incapable of making 
good and successful farmers. The truth is, that business has got 
into such a state in our large cities, that the leading object of the 
great mass of the merchants is nol to gain, but to get into debt, 
and to keep up their credits, by punctual payments, finding all 
hopes of profit and gain at an end, they buy all they can on credit, 
without going so deep as to endanger that credit, and sell before 
their notes become due, generally in some underhand way, at less 
than cost, until at last the concerns become perfect shells. It is 
really surprising, what an amount of ingenuity and industry some 
■ of them exhibit during the periods of insolvent financiering, the 
same amount of ingenuity and industry, if applied to agriculture 
would have led to wealth and independence, a result very different 
from that of wasting their time, their labor, and their money, 
together with twenty thousand dollars worth of the property of 
others. 

John S. Skinner, says, they are fortunate who fail when young. 
The New York Herald stated, that five hundred millions of dollars 
were wiped out by the bankrupt law of 1841. I venture to say, 
that more than four hundred millions of those bankruptcies were 
caused by the banking system ; an enormous sum to be abstracted 
from the property and labor of the country, by men who have not 
only wasted their time in useless occupations, but who have literally 
employed themselves in robbing and plundering the community; 
working as hard, and spending as much capital and labor at their 
nefarious pursuits, as would have raised them to comfort and inde- 
pendence, in occupations not only not injurious, but useful to the 



60 

community. It would certainly have added greatly to the national 
wealth, if the men who wasted four hundred millions of dollars, had 
even supported themselves and their families ; hut the probahility is 
that they would not only have done so, hut would have added con- 
siderably to the national wealth, had they not been led into error, 
by the banking system. 

It is probable that many of those unfortunate persons could have 
succeeded, quite as well as mechanics or laborers, as they could 
have succeeded as agriculturists. It has been demonstrated beyond 
all hope of successful contradiction, that the banking system produ. 
ces the great monetary convulsions which occur in the United States, 
and it can be demonstrated with equal certainty, that those great 
monetary convulsions produce popular clamors for stay laws, so 
strong, that the majority of legislatures are unable to resist them. 
(The constitution of the United States declares that no State shall 
pass a law, impairing the obligation of contracts.) Now, what is 
the obligation of a contract ? It is the binding force which the law 
gives to the stipulations, into which two or more persons enter, 
when forming a contract with one another. To what do the par- 
ties look, when they enter into a contract with one another ? To 
the rights which the law gives them, and to the remedies which the 
law gives them. They look to both the rights and the remedies 
which the law gives them, without distinguishing between those 
rights and those remedies. For instance, if A gives B his prom- 
missory note for fifty dollars, for valuable consideration, he reasons 
thus; now, if I do not pay this note when it becomes due, B can sue 
me, and in such a time, by certain evidence, procure a judgment 
against me, and at the expiration of such a time, he can issue an 
execution and levy on, and sell any property which I may possess, 
which the law would at this time make liable to levy and sale, if a 
man had a judgment against me for such an amount, and an execu- 
tion out on such judgment. B reasons in precisely the same way, 
that he will have precisely such remedies against A, as A has anti- 
cipated, if a case should arise that would make it necessary to use 
them ; both look to their legal rights and legal remedies alone, as 
the standards by which their contract is regulated, and not to any 
vague and indefinite system of moralit3^ 

Now, is it not manifest, that any law which changes the remedy 
violates the obligation of the contract? I am aware, that Chief 
Justice Gibson, has said, that the legislature may not only change 



Gl 

the remedy, but may take the remedy away entirely. If this were 
the correct construction of the aforesaid clause of the constitution 
of the United States, it would he perfectly nugatory, and utterly 
worthless, it would, indeed, be an insult and a mockery to our un- 
derstandings. Of what earthly value would B's obligation against 
A be, if A were dishonest and would not pay without compulsion, 
and B could not have a legal remedy ? We will suppose another 
case, that A were the tenant of J3, of a farm, and that the legisla- 
ture were to take away the right of B to enforce the collection of 
the rent by law, and were to deprive B of the right of removing 
him from the property, by legal process, I would be much inclined 
to think A's title to the property the best of the two, for all prac- 
tical purposes. 

It is true, that according to the doctrines of the Supreme Court 
of Pennsylvania, a species of legal right would exist in B to the 
property, which the legislature have the power of giving him a legal 
remedy to enforce, although no such remedy might exist at the 
present time. It is a well settled doctrine of the law, that there is 
no such thing as a legal right without a legal remedy. I think it is 
very manifest, that the parties never regard the vague and indeJB- 
nite principles of morality, as having anything to do with the obli- 
gation of the contract which they form with one another ; as I have 
stated already, they look to their legal rights and legal remedies 
alone, when entering into a contract with one another. It may be 
alleged by some people, that they anticipate the right of the legisla- 
ture, to change their remedies. If that argument were true, it 
would be the legislature that would make the contract between them, 
and not the parties themselves, a doctrine that every lawyer will 
admit to be wholly unsound and untenable. Is it not perfectly 
manifest, that any law changing or taking away the remedy is quite 
as much a violation of the obligation of the contract as taking away 
the right would be? 

I am persuaded, people generally do not appreciate the vast im- 
portance to civilization, of preserving the rights of property invio- 
late. An examination of history will show, that civilization is 
founded on protection to the rights of property; and a savage state 
of society on principles the very reverse. It certainly never was 
intended by the framcrs of t^e Constitution of the United States ,that 
the stipulation which prohibits any State from passing a law impair, 
ing the obligation of a contract, should be void, or what amounts to 



Q) 



62 

the same thing in substance, -wholly nugatory. I think I have 
shown, that to allow the States the privilege of changing the reme- 
dy, is to allow them the power of rendering the contract utterly 
useless for all practical purposes. How ridiculous it would be, to 
tell a man he had a right but no remedy? How absurd to point out 
to a man a valuable farm, and to tell him he is the owner of it, 
but that he cannot procure possession by process of law, or any 
compensation for the use of it? 

The framers of the Constitution of the United States were sen- 
sible of the vast importance of preserving the rights of property 
inviolate. They knew that constitutional liberty, and a well-ordered 
and happy state of society, could not exist, if those rights were not 
preserved inviolate. It is absolutely certain that we shall lose our 
civilization and become savages, if those rights are not preserved 
inviolate. Every attack, made directly or indirectly, on the 
rights of property, is a step towards barbarism. I think I have 
shown, that stay laws, passed after the contract is entered into, 
contain a principle that will gradually and effectually destroy the 
rights of property; and that the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania 
have sanctioned a doctrine that will insidiously, but gradually and 
effectually, destroy the rights of property. It would be equally 
destructive of the rights of the parties, if the legislature were to 
deprive them of the right to levy on and sell any property which 
was liable to levy and sale, at the time the contract was entered 
into. If the evil which joroduces the great monetary convulsions in 
the United States, should not be removed, State legislatures will not 
resist the popular clamors for stay laws, on such occasions; and 
State judiciaries cannot be relied on to resist the popular clamors, 
on such occasions, for a decision sanctioning the constitutionality of 
such laws. It is much to be feared, indeed, it is almost certain, that 
the Supreme Court of the United States will yield to the storms, on 
such occasions, if we do not, by gradually destroying the banking 
system and paper money, lessen the force of such tempests. 

If we do not gradually get rid of the banking system and paper 
money, the constitutional guaranties for our rights of property will 
be a mockery and a delusion. By paper money I do not mean 
paper money issued on the principle of the bank of Amsterdam. 
Tlie experience of the world has shown, that paper money, if issued 
in large quantities, on any other security than one dollar in gold or 
silver deposited for every dollar of paper issued, to be drawn at 



Ob 

pleasure, is always sure to bring about great monetary convulsions, 
and national and individual bankruptcies. If paper money is issued 
on the security of a government, or of real estate, it will not mend 
the matter. If paper money is issued to excess, it will depreciate, 
until it is no longer of any value Avhatever. The great natural rights 
guarantied to us by our constitutions and bills of rights, were re- 
garded as great fundamental principles of the law, by our ablest 
jurists and jstatesmen, and by the ablest jurists and statesmen of 
England, long before our constitutions and bills of rights had an 
existence. Those constitutions and bills of rights were intended 
to render more definite and certain, rights which had long been 
practically enjoyed, and which had been regarded by the soundest 
lavvyers and statesmen as inalienable rights, which no earthly au- 
thority had the power to take away or impair. 

Judge Story, in his Avork on the Constitution, has stated that a 
convention, assembled for the purpose of framing a constitution, 
has the power to violate any of those great natural rights ; he, 
howe\:er, at the same time admits that it would be an act* of tyranny 
and injustice on the part of a convention to do so, although he con- 
tends that a convention has the legal right to commit those acts of 
tyranny and injustice, if it chooses to do so. It is greatly to be 
regretted that Judge Story's work on the Constitution has found 
such genferal circulation with the profession of the law. I admit 
that the work contains a laro;e amount of useful information ; vet 
the information which it contains cannot jialliate or excuse the mis- 
chief caused by impressing so infamous a doctrine on the great 
masses of the legal minds of the country. It is true that a perusal of 
the Reports of the Supreme Court of the United States would rectify 
the mischief which Judge Story has done ; but, unfortunately, only 
small portions of the professsion extend their researches on that 
subject beyond Judge Story's work. The common sense of the 
community repudiates, with horror, this infamous doctrine of Judge 
Story. Tell any man, when a conventioii assembles to frame a 
constitution, that it has the power to deprive him of his farm or of 
his life, without the commission of a crime, or to make him a slave, 
and he will repudiate and deny the doctrine with indignation and 
horror; and I think I am safe in saying, that nearly the whole 
community would unite with him in the expression of such senti- 
ments ; and yet that is precisely the doctrine for which Judge Story 
contends. The common sense of the community views the question 



64 

precisely as our ablest jurists have viewed it, namely, that neither 
convention, legislative body, nor any earthly tribunal, or authority 
whatever, has the power legally to deprive us of any of our great 
natural rights. 

The opinion of Judge Story on another great question, renders 
it evident to my mind, that but little reliance is to be placed on the 
frankness and sincerity of his opinions on questions of constitutional 
law. A law having been passed by the national government, for a 
new organization of the judiciary, it had the effect of depriving 
some of the judges of their offices; whereupon Judge Story con- 
tends most lustily, that the law was a violation of the Constitution, 
and that the government, at the very least, should have paid the 
judges their salaries for life. Now, it so happened that the latter 
doctrine was popular with the leading members of the bar and the 
judiciary, although not acknowledged by them as sound law, and it 
was precisely those men who purchased Judge Story's works, and 
who recommended them to the profession of the law. It is proba- 
ble that he had motives equally cogent and honorable, for advocating 
the unlimited power of conventions. 

I scarcely know what a reader, who is not a lawyer, will think of 
a judge who contended that the government had no right to deprive 
judges of their salaries, when they chose to abolish the offices which 
said judges held, and which the Constitution gave them the power 
to abolish or create, as they might deem politic and wise. The 
judge contended that the government was bound to pay them their 
salaries for life, although the constitution did not contain any pro- 
vision to that effect ; and yet the same judge contended, that a con- 
vention assembled for the purpose of framing a constitution, had 
the power to deprive a man of his life, or liberty, or property, and 
that the action of said convention, in the premises, would be legal, 
although unjust. So it would seem that life and liberty and prop- 
erty, Avere but dust in the balance, when compared to the life 
tenures of judges, and the salaries necessary to support them in 
comfort and independence. 

This doctrine of Judge Story, strikes at the A'^ery roots of civil 
liberty and vested rights, and has always been denounced by the 
most able and upright constitutional lawyers and judges, both of 
England and the United States. Liberty or good government can- 
not exist in any country, where there is a power which can success- 
fully assail any of the great natural rights of the people. It is 



65 

easential to the protection of the rights of the people, under a gov- 
ernment like that of the United States, that the doctrine for which 
I contend, shall be acknowledged to be sound and true, by all great 
parties, in the State, and by the overwhelming voice of public 
opinion. The very fact, that Judge Story contended for the two 
doctrines mentioned, would have destroyed all conGdence in his 
integrity ; in my mind, it would be impossible to convince me that 
any learned and able constitutional lawyer, ever believed both of 
those doctrines to be correct ; such a man might have believed one 
of those doctrines to be correct, although, I think even that propo- 
siti ^n very questionable. The respective doctrines are so com- 
pletely the antipodes of legal conservatism and of legal radicalism, 
that I cannot believe that the same mind could possibly think tliem 
both accurate. It will be no longer necessary, that the national 
government shall set the States a bad example in the way of char- 
tering banks. 

The only ground on which the supreme court of the United States 
sanctioned the constitutionality of a national bank was this, that it 
was necessary for the purpose of enabling the government to exer- 
cise other powers, clearly granted by that instrument. The expe- 
rience of the country ever since the expiration of the charter of the 
last national bank, has clearly shown that a bank is not necessary 
for that purpose ; consequently, a national bank is no longer consti- 
tutional. It is greatly to be lamented that the people will continue to 
sanction, on the part of their government, a system which has brought 
so many misfortunes upon them, and which continues to bring so 
many misfortunes upon them, and which does not offer any substan- 
tial advantage in return. An argument, and one of the principal 
arguments, in favor of banking and paper money is this, that there is 
not a sufficient quantity of gold and silver in the world with which 
to carry on the business transactions of life in their present mag- 
nitude, without producing a dangerous depreciation in the nominal 
value of property. If the whole civilized world were at once to 
adopt the gold and silver standards and to abolish paper money, it 
would, undoubtedly, seriously affect the nominal value of property; 
but, if they were to do so, it would not depreciate the value of pro- 
perty as seriously as one of our great monetary convulsions; and 
there would be this important difference between the calamities, 
that the calamity brought on by the adoption of gold and silver as 
the only money of the country, would occur only oace, and ever 

9 



66 

afterwards, so long as we possessed a civilized government, the mon- 
etary transactions of the country would proceed with regularity, 
and without any great or general convulsion. Under a currency 
exclusively of gold and silver, hundreds of men, nay, thousands of 
men who are now ruined, when overtaken hy one of our great mone- 
tary convulsions, would be able to manage their business success- 
fully. Some of our ablest statesmen and political economists are 
in the habit of charging the merchants and speculators with bring- 
ing on their own misfortunes by wild and improvident speculations, 
when the fault, in reality, rests with the government. 

The people of the United States are eminently calculated to man- 
age their business transactions with prudence and success ; but the 
human intellect is incapable of protecting its own interests under 
a system, the workings of which are so various, complicated and 
secret. Even the most acute, powerful, and well informed intellects 
cannot protect themselves under such circumstances. It is the 
business of great statesmen so to frame the laws and institutions 
of society, that men of reasonable capacity, intelligence, and pru- 
dence can conduct their business safely and successfully. 

Notwithstanding all the clamours which have been raised that 
there is not an adequate supply of gold and silver for the business 
transactions of the country, I venture to say that if our state gov- 
ernments would adopt and firmly persevere in the policy of gradually 
abolishing the banking system and paper money, that when the final 
consummation would arrive, the efi'ect would not have been precept- 
ible on the rights of debtors and creditors. The evil would have been 
got rid of forever, and the business transactions of the commercial 
community would no longer be characterized as possessing the des- 
perate hazards of the gaming table or the lottery, and we might hope 
that the rights of property would be free, in future, from the insid- 
ious attacks of stay laws. 

I have thus endeavored to point out some of the evils of the 
banking system and paper money. I have stated that the ablest 
advocates and apologists of that sj'stem declare that no one is ben- 
efited by it, biit the manufacturers of paper money. Probably the 
only ones really benefited are the cashiers, presidents and clerks, 
who generally receive large saleries for their services in attending 
to those institutions. I think it can be shown that banking is a 
losing business for the great mass of stockholders. Bank directors 
do not lend money with as much prudence and care as private 



67 

individuals. If the evil effects wliicli the banking system produces, 
directly or indirectly, on the property or morals of the community, 
could be pointed out ■with clearness and certainty, all intelligent 
statesmen would be appalled at the spectacle. There are, however, 
great numbers of those evils that it will always be found impossible 
to point out with precision, minuteness and certainty ; for the rea- 
sons formerly stated, namely: that it has always baffled the most 
acute, powerful and well informed minds to ascertain how the great 
masses of mankind live, and that the secret workings of private 
life are beyond the reach of any intellect, however penetrating, or 
any information, however minute and full. If the opponents of the 
banking system and paper money succeed in abolishing those evils 
in our country, we shall soon be able to point out their disastrous 
effects by the increased prosperity and steadiness of business in 
general, and the gradual and certain increase of capital, until it 
will answer fully, all the wants of a highly civilized society. A pru- 
<lent man will then be able to purchase a farm partly on credit, 
and not be in danger, after he has paid three- fourths of the purchase 
money, of having the whole property swept from him for the bal- 
ance, during one of our great monetary convulsions. 

I would impress on the minds of our statesmen and the public at 
large, a fact which appears very evident to my mind, that the union 
of these states is in greater danger from the banking system and 
paper money than from any other cause. If the banking system 
and paper money should not be abolished, the unconstitutional stay 
laws, passed during our great monetary convulsions, will finally 
undermine and destroy the constitution of the United States by 
depriving the supreme court of the United States ot the power of 
protecting the rights of property, guaranteed, by the constitution. 
But the mischief will not end there ; it will finally destroy our civ- 
ilization. As to our liberty. Lord Mansfield has said, and never was 
saying more perfectly just and true, that "liberty cannot exist in 
any country where justice is not alike administered to the king and 
to the beggar.^' If creditors are to be deprived of their property 
by stay laws, or laws exempting property from sale on execution, it 
would be adding insult to robbery to talk to such men about their 
liberty or their rights. It would not be a greater act of tyranny on 
the part of a government to take property directly from a man, than 
to legislate it from him to his neighbor, by virtually depriving him 
of all power of obtaining the use or possession of it. 



68 

In 1812, Mr. Van Buren was elected to the senate of Nctt 
York, from the middle district; after a violent contest, in -which 
Edward P. Livingston was his competitor; a man who received the 
support of the bank democrats, and of the whole federal party of 
the district. Mr. Van Buren's majority was only about two hun- 
dred in a mass of twenty thousand votes. De Witt Clinton had 
been nominated for President of the United States in the spring of 
1812, by the democratic members of the legislature of New York, 
before Mr. Van Buren was elected a member of that body; and in 
November, 1812, the legislature, of which Mr. Van Buren was a 
member, met for the purpose of choosing presidential electors ; Mr. 
Van Buren voted for electors favorable to the election of De Witt 
Clinton. In supporting the nomination of De Witt Clinton, Mr. 
Van Buren did what honor and propriety required him to do, as a 
representative of a portion of the democracy of New York. He 
appears, however, to have been an open advocate of all the strong 
measures proposed against Great Britain, during the session of 
Congress 1811 — 12, and among those measures, he was in favor of the 
war. De Witt Clinton received the support of some of the federal 
members of the legislature of New Y'ork, and was the condidate of the 
federal party in other states. These circumstances, however, did 
not affect the standing of Mr. Van Buren with the democratic party. 
Notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Van Buren voted for De Witt 
Clinton for President, he gave to all the war measures a most deci- 
ded and vigorous support. 

Mr. Van Buren appears to have dissolved all political connexion 
with De Witt Clinton at the next session of the legislature, and 
never afterwards to have cordially resumed a political connexion 
with him. The conduct of Mr. Van Buren in supporting the war 
and war measures, while he at the same time voted for De Witt 
Clinton, the anti-war candidate, for president, because he was the 
regularly nominated candidate of the democracy of New York, 
shows how little claim his friends can justly make in his behalf, to 
those open-minded, manly and heroic characteristics which lead to 
political heroism, and martyrdom if necessary, in sustaining great 
principles. Mr. Van Buren supported Governor Tompkins for re- 
election. In advocating the war and war measures it is probable 
Mr. Van Buren was actuated by various motives; the ruling and 
controling motive, however, I have no doubt was a desire to maintain 
and strengthen his position with the democratic party, which party 



G9 

«ustaine(1 the war. There cannot be any question that Great 
Britain hud gi'en just cause of Avar. France, however, had com- 
mitted acts of an equtilly hostile character. If, however, the war had 
been unjust and impolitic, I feel assured Mr. Van Buren would not 
have risked his standing with the democratic party by opposing it. 
The conduct of Mr. Van Buren during his presidential term has sat- 
isfied my mind, that he loves peace in his heart, and would, if left free 
to follow the dictates of his own mind, never involve his country in 
a war. Perhaps he may have entertained different sentiments in 
his youth, and may have changed those sentiments when he had an 
opportunity of witnessing a war and its effects. Probably he dis- 
covered Mr. Webster's quotation to be a true one, namely : "This is 
not the feast to which we were invited." 

Mr. Van Buren is now evidently a man of peace ; he, however, 
knew in 1812, that by supporting the war and Avar measures he 
would confirm and strengthen his standing Avith the democratic party, 
and that those measures, as soon as the storm was over, would receive 
the approbation of a large majority of the people, by appealing to 
their patriotic instincts and love of country. 

Mr. Van Buren Avas appointed attorney general of New York in 
1815, an ofiice the duties of Avhich he discharged Avith singular dig- 
nity and propriety, and with great learning and ability. He was 
appointed a regent of the University in the same year, by the legis- 
lature. In 181(J he was re-elected to the senate, the term being four 
years. In 1816, when the projects of making canals from lakes 
Erie and Champlain to the Hudson river, were under consideration 
in the legislature, those measures were supported Avith so much 
ability by Mr. Van Buren, that he received the thanks of De Witt 
Clinton, who Avas the great champion of those measures. In 1817 
.De Witt Clinton received the support of both the great political 
parties for governor; and, although Mr. Van Buren did not approve 
of the nomination of De Witt Clinton by the democratic party, he 
acquiesced in it, and gave that august personage his support. Mr. 
Clinton received the almost unanimous votes of the tAvo great polit- 
ical parties. The support which he received, however, from a large 
portion of the democratic party, Avas rot cordial and sincere. The 
union of the tAvo parties in favor of the election of Gov. Clinton 
was caused by the part which he had taken in favor of making the 
great Erie canal, etc. 

During the War of 1812, Goa'. Tompkins and. Mr, Van Buren 



70 



were the great political leaders of the democracy of New York ; 
and Mr. Madison had offered the appointment of Secretary of State 
to Gov. Tompkins which appointment he declined. This offer in- 
duced Gov. Tompkins and the democracy of New York to suppose 
that the national administration would regard themselves as pledged 
to support Gov. Tompkins for President of the United States, in 
1816. The Secretary of State was then regarded as the heir appareni 
to the throne. The Democratic members of the legislature of New 
York took the necessary steps to procure the nomination of Gov. 
Tompkins for President, in 1816, but were unsuccessful. The de- 
mocracy of New York having urged the claims of Gov. Tompkins 
for the Presidency, Mr. Van Euren went on to Washington, to 
second their efforts in behalf of his friend. The reader will, in 
this conduct of Mr. Van Buren, perceive a characteristic which he 
has often exhibited, namely, a remarkable devotion and fidelity to 
the interests of those political friends, with whom he has been 
brought into close personal intercourse. Mr. Van Buren has, on 
such occasions, often exhibited a fidelity and a devotion not usual 
among politicians, at least, not usual among politicians of the pres- 
ent day.^ When Mr. Van Buren found he could not procure the 
nomination of Gov. Tompkins, he appears to have awaited with 
philosophic calmness, the result of the contest between the other 
aspirants for the nomination. Gov. Tompkins was nominated for 
the Vice Presidency. 

Gov. Tompkins was justly regarded as the most popular man in 
the State of New York, with the exception of De Witt Clinton ; 
and Mr. Van Buren and his friends induced him to become the 
opposing candidate to De Witt Clinton for Governor. Mr. Van 
Buren succeeded in organizing the great masses of the democratic 
party against De Witt Chnton, with Tompkins as their candidate ; 
Clinton, however, succeeded by a majority of less than two thou- 
sand votes. Mr. Van Buren evidently exerted himself with great 
skill, and in some indirect ways, to procure the political destruction 
of De Witt Clinton. Perhaps he may have been actuated by some 
such worthy motive as Sir Robert AValpole was actuated by, in his 
quarrel with his brother-in-law, Townshend: he said — "f was de- 
termined that the firm should be in future, Walpole and Townshend, 
and not Townshend and Walpole." 

Mr. Van Buren frequently exhibited great ability, and often great 
learning and research, in the speeches and documents which he 



71 

produced wlieu a Senator of New York, and attracted and received 
a great deal of popular applause. He also attracted the admira- 
tion and applause of the educated and the able. A man without 
ability might sometimes receive a large share of popular applause ; 
I have seldom, however, known the educated and the able to ap- 
plaud any one who did not, at least, possess ability, whatever the 
other merits or demerits of the party might be. Although Clinton 
was re-elected, both branches of the legislature and the Council of 
Appointment, were decidedly anti-Clintonian. This circumstance 
might lead people to conjecture, that if a popular candidate had 
been selected by the democratic party, he might have defeated 
Clinton. There is scarcely a doubt, however, that Tompkins was 
the most popular candidate that could have been selected to oppose 
Clinton, who had acquired a great personal weight and influence in 
the State of New York. 

This is the first instance, which has come under my observation, 
in which Mr. Van Buren appears to have sought the defeat of a 
political rival in an artful and round about way. I presume he 
found the elevation and success of De Witt Clinton, as a politician, 
inconsistent with his own success and advancement as a politician. 
The Council of Appointment, being friendly to Gov. Clinton, re- 
moved ISIr. Van Buren from the office of Attorney General, in 
July, 1819. A majority of the Council of appointment, beinf 
opposed to Gov. Clinton, in 1820, they offered to restore Mr. Van 
Buren to the office of Attorney General; he refused, however, to 
accept it. 

Mr. Van Buren, while in the Senate of New York, concurred in 
» resolution, passed by both houses, instructing their Senators, and 
requesting their Representatives, to oppose the admission of Mis- 
souri, or [any other territory, into the Union, without making the 
prohibition of slavery therein, an indispensable pre-requisite to 
admission. This resolution was not brought before the legislature 
hj Mr. Van Buren, but he appears to have concurred in it. In 
February, 1821, Mr. Van Buren was elected to the Senate of the 
United States, by the legislature of New York, in the place of Na- 
than Sanford, whose term of office expired in March, 1821. Mr. 
Sanford was a democrat, and a candidate before the caucus composed 
of the democratic members of the legislature. Eighty-two mem- 
bers attended the caucus, of whom fifty-eight voted for Mr. Van 
Buren, and twenty-four for Mr. Sanford. On the final contest in 



i'J. 



the legislature, Mr. Van Buren received eighty-six votes, and Mr. 
Sanford sixty votes. The federalists and the friends of De Witt 
Clinton voted for Mr. Sanford. 

Mr. Van Buren was elected hy the Democracy of Otsego, a 
member o! the Convention, to revise the Constitution of New York, 
He had advocated this measure. He was favorable to the extension 
of the right of suffrage, and to some other changes. The Convention 
contained many able men, and Mr. Van Buren was considered one 
of the ablest, if not the ablest man in the Convention. Indeed, it 
would be impossible to assemble a legislative body of statesmen, if 
the whole world were searched for materials, in which Mr. Van 
Buren would not be considered an able man. ' His views as express- 
ed in his speeches, were comprehensive, statesman-like and just. 
Mr. Van Buren, as might justly have been expected, from a man 
possessing a mind so comprehensive and statesman-like, thoroughly 
learned in the law, and withal, possessing extensive information, 
pursued a conservative course in the Convention. I am persuaded, 
that such a man could not have pursued any other course, without 
violating every conviction of his mind. 

I have seen it somewhere stated, that Napoleon regarded the phi- 
losophers who figured so largely in the first French revolution, as 
idiots. I confess, I think he did them justice, so far as the practi- 
cal utility of their views was concerned, in affairs of State, they 
were literally idiots. The writings and speeches of such men, sel- 
dom have a dangerous influence in free countries like Great Britain 
and the United States ; they often appeal with great force to the 
natural reasoning powers of men ; but in Great Britain and the 
United States, such croakers are not a novelty, and the fallacies of 
their infallible remedies have been so often demonstrated by the tests 
of experience, that we are seldom disposed to rely upon their pre- 
dictions or promises. 

The fallacy of relying on natural reason alone, as a guide in the 
science of government, is so well understood in Groat Britain and 
the United States, that such m«n seldom attain to any great power 
and dignity among us. We are so often in the habit of placing 
statesmen and parties in places of power, where they have opportu- 
nities of carrying out their measures ; and their boundless predictions 
with regard to the success of those measures, have been so often 
contradicted, by the results of those measures, when tested, that the 
people are disposed to receive the predictions of philosophers and 



73 

statesmen, •with many grains of allowance. We are accustomed to 
such promises and predictions and disappointments, from our youth 
up. When philosophers possess comprehensive and statesman-like 
minds, their writings on questions of State and public policy, are 
often very valuable and instructive. 

Philosophers who possess the capacities of statesmen, generally 
express their views with a degree of frankness and fulness on ques- 
tions of public policy, which practical statesmen are restrained from 
imitating, by a fear of offending public opinion, or by a fear of 
offending the authority or authorities, on which they depend for 
their positions and power. The public, however, ought to be very 
careful to discriminate between the views of those philosophers, who 
possess the capacities of statesmen and the views of another class 
of philosophers, who possess mediocrity intellects, or intellects so 
organized, that they are incapable of taking accurate and just view- 
on great questions of State. 

I will cite some examples by Avay of illustration. Paine and L>e 
Tocqueville rank with the mediocrity intellects. Lord Brougham 
possesses a comprehensiveness of view, and a vigor and force of 
reasoning, considerably above mediocrity : and the position which 
lie occupies, gives him the power of misleading many people, by his 
views and opinions. The views of such men, are not only useless, 
but absolutely dangerous on questions of State and of public policy. 
If we are compelled to listen to the doctrines, and sometimes to 
submit to the legislation of such men, M'hen they get into public life, 
we should use all honorable means to prevent the spread of their 
delusive theories, with that portion of mankind who are likely to 
carry them into practice. The views of a philosopher on questions 
of State and of public policy, ought never to receive the countenance 
and support of the community, unless he possesses a comprehensive 
and statesman-like mind, of the very highest order. Ordinary pow- 
ers of intellect should never be listened to on such questions, unless, 
when their possessors hold positiona as statesmen, which make their 
power felt- The field of philosophic statesman-shi]), shoidd be loft 
to the choice and master spirits of the world. 

I observed, when reading the third volume of Brougham's Uvea 
of the statesmen, of the reign of George tlie third, that his lordship 
eridently regarded with great complacency, the senatorial positions 
of such men as Webster, Clay and Calhoun. Well, certainly such 
political positions, arc very di.(;nified, and yew comfortable ftr am- 

10 



74 

bitious and statesman- like minds. I do not wish to be understood 
as stating that his lordship actually commented on the positions of 
those gentlemen ; it was very evident to me, however, that he re- 
garded such a position with great complacency, and that he thought 
that if his lot had been cast in the United States, he would have 
occupied such a position. I admit, that we often elevate to such 
stations, men greatly the inferiors of his lordship in intellect, yet I 
can assure his lordship, (if this humble production should ever meet 
his eye,) that he never could have acquired a position in the United 
States, which would have enabled him to command and hold such 
a station in the same way that Webster, Clay and Calhoun com- 
manded and held such stations. 

His lordship may justly regard it as his great good fortune, that 
his lot was cast among the educated aristocracy of Great Britain. 
The intellectual powers of Lord Brougham, may enable him to get 
along with a portion of the educated aristocracy of Great Britain, 
who do not know how to discriminate between such powers as he 
possesses, and the powers of a statesman. Yet I can assure his 
lordship, that he never could hold the position of a statesman for 
any considerable length of time in the United States. The natural 
sagacity of the people, would reject him. It is difficult, indeed, it 
is almost impossible for great statesmen to get into public life at 
this time in tlie United States. However, if a man who possesses 
a comprehensive and statesman-like mind, and who knows how to 
make a dignified, prudent and appropriate use of his capacity, could 
manage to get into the Senate of the United States, for one or two 
terms, from one of tlie small or medium sized States, he could prob- 
ably manage to hold the reins and retain his position with a good 
deal of strength and dignity. Such a driver, however, as his lord- 
ship, woidd ])e sure to capsize in a short time. It is much more 
difficult to retain such a positioi! in one of the large States, than in 
one of the small or medium sized States. 

We have been so often disappointed by the promises and predic- 
tions of able and upright statesmen, that we would not be likely to 
give undue weight to the theories of philosophers in favor of revo- 
lutionary legislation, particularly of philosophers who do not pos- 
sess the capacities of statesmen, were it not for the fact that the 
theories of such men are sometimes forced upon the people by party 
discipline. It is surprising how seldom a movement for any radical 
change in the laws or institutions of the country originates with the 



• 75 

people. The truth is, the gi'eat masses of the people, if their wishes 
were fairly consulted, would almost always be found on the conserva- 
tive side of such questions. Certainly the passion which prevails 
among our politicians for changes in our laws and in our constitutions 
is one of the most destructive and dangerous tendencies of the times. 
It is rendered peculiarly dangerous and alarming by the admitted 
imbecility and ignorance of the great masses of our law-givers. 
Few people justly appreciate the danger to be apprehended by the 
community from ignorant and imbecile law reformers. Notwith- 
standing the many laws passed by our legislature, I think it can be 
demonstrated that if the law were divided into one hundred parts, 
ninety-eight of those parts would be found to be common law, and 
two parts acts of assembly. So long as the law is ably and uprightly 
administered, we must necessarily have a good government. The 
law when ably and uprightly administered, becomes the great con- 
servative power in the state to Avhich every man appeals for the 
protection of his rights, and on which every man relies as the foun- 
tain of justice and the great bulwark of civilization ; it is also the best 
protection to liberty and property. When administered by imbecile, 
ignorant or corrupt hands it becomes a torturing engine, which just 
and intelligent men regard with fear and horror. 

Mr. Yan Buren, in the New York convention, opposed the elec- 
tion of justices of the peace by the people ; but whether he mended 
the matter by the project which he recommended, and which was 
adopted by the convention, I am not prepared to say. It was soon 
changed, and the election of justices given to the people. Does it 
not seem to be a reasonable proposition that all who undertake to 
administer the law, should understand the law; now, it is a fact that, 
except in those cases where the offices of justices of the peace are 
held by lawyers, there is scarcely a justice of the peace to be found 
in Pennsylvania who has a competent knowledge of the law, to ena- 
ble him to discharge the duties of his station as such duties ought to 
be discharged. And it is equally true that the profession of the law 
could furnish men of respectable legal attainments who would be 
happy to fill those offices in every city and in nearly every town in 
the state. I have already stated that it requires an acute, logical 
and comprehensive mind, with great strength of memory and accu- 
racy of judgment, twenty or twenty-five years of judiciously directed 
and ardent study, to become a first rate lawyer; so extensive and 
comprehensive a system is the law. And according to my notion it 



76' • 

>sould require a well organized mind five years attentive law reading, 
directed with an eye to preparing the indivdual for the discharge of 
the duties of justice of the peace, to enable him to fill that office 
with safety to the public. I am sensible that it will not require an 
argument to convince a lawyer that our justices of the peace, as at 
present organized, cannot possibly have a competent knowledge of 
the law; but the difficulty of my task will be to convince a commu- 
nity, who have not any just conception of the law or of lawyers, 
of the correctness of my suggestions. 

Every consideration which ought to actuate an intelligent and 
an upright mind, requires that the law should be ably and uprightly 
administered in all its various departments. The law, Avith very 
few exceptions, is a system of pure reason, morality and justice ; and 
-t must be obvious to every man of intelligence, sense and integrity, 
that it is for the interests of society to have suoh a system admin- 
istered with justice and accuracy among the people. Every prin- 
ciple of reason, morality, religion and justice urges us to that course, 
and no principle of reason, morality, justice or religion urges us to 
pursue a course directly the reverse. 

The same reasons which I have urged against the election of 
justices of the peace who do not possess legal learning and ability, 
apply with equal force against the appointment of arbitrators who 
do not possess legal learning and ability. Philosophers, statesmen, 
lawyers and all intelligent men unite in praising the comprehensive 
wisdom of our law; and yet boards of arbitrators, ignorant of that 
law, are made judges of the law and the facts, and are allowed to exer- 
cise a very extensive power in deciding causes. So clearly have the 
judiciaries, both in England and in the United States, been convinced 
of the injustice and absurdity of employing arbitrators, to decide 
questions of law, that it is a settled principle of law with them in 
both countries, to lean against arbitrators depriving the courts of 
law of the jurisdiction of causes. We have, by our constitution and 
bills of rights, taken a great deal of pains to secure to every citizen 
a just administration of the law ; and yet, by our boards of arbitra- 
tors and justices of the peace, Ave literally administer a species of 
Lynch law to the people ; for our system of appeals, etc. does not 
answer the purpose of eftectually protecting the parties. The peo- 
ple AYOuld be horrified were any one to propose to put them under 
tlie arbitary power of despotic magistrates, such as we read of in 
eastern sI'Ory, who inflict whatever punishments they please, and 



decide the rights of the people according to their carpricc or dis- 
cretion, without being under the control of any regular system of 
laws ; and yet, to a legal mind, the parties who go before justices 
of the peace and arbitrators, appear to be placed in situations vir- 
tually similar; except that the jurisdiction of justices of the peace 
and arbitrators is more limited in extent and in power. 

Mr. Van Buren opposed the attempt made in the convention to 
deprive the blacks of the privilege of voting ; he, however, sustained 
the proposition that blacks who were freeholders should alone be 
allowed that privilege. In his course towards black voters, Mr. Van 
Buren was, doubtless, actuated by a statesman-like view of the ques- 
tion, and by a love of justice. I strongly suspect, however, that 
in urging the call of the convention for the purpose of extending 
the elective franchise among white voters, his ruling motive was a 
desire to obtain popularity with the masses. The fact that he sup- 
ported the proposition for a freehold qualification for the blacks, 
impresses my mind with the belief that he thought that class of men, 
whether white or black, the only safe depositories of the elective 
franchise. In ftict, Mr. Van Buren did not assent to universal suf- 
frage, even for the whites. The extension of the elective franchise 
among the whites was too popular a measure for a politician like 
Mr. Van Buren to venture to oppose it ; but he could fairly and 
safely exercise his humane feelings, and statesman-like powers of 
reasoning, and love of justice, so far as the elective franchise of the 
blacks was concerned. It is but fair to admit that many most co- 
gent, just and statesman-like reasons could be urged in favor of the 
extension of the elective franchise to white men who were not free- 
holders, which could not be urged in favor of the extension of the 
elective franchise to black men who are not freeholders. There were 
large bodies of educated and intelligent men in the cities and towns, 
who were not freeholders; and that portion of the blacks who were 
not freeholders were generally an ignorant and vicious class. 

Perhaps Mr. Van Buren was governed by statesman-like views, in 
the course which he pursued; although, I must confess, I think a 
desire to obtain popularity would have induced him to pursue the 
course which he adopted, if such reasons had not existed. His 
zeal for the extension of the elective franchise, was doubtless 
greatly stimulated, if not entirely created, by his desire to obtain 
popularity and to strengthen the party from whom he expected in 
future to receive political advancement. Mr. Van Buren, for many 



78 

years, appears to have been on terms of the most intimate political con- 
nexion with the democracy of Virginia, who do not appear to haA'e 
felt any uncontrollable zeal for the extension of the elective franchise- 
It is greatly to be regretted that our politicians and statesmen 
evince so strong an inclination to follow English examples, and 
English and Erench social reforms, &c. They think if they follow 
the exampl<^s of any parties in Great Britain, they ought to select 
the liberal parties for their guides. No matter how wise, just, and 
proper a measure of the conservative party might be, a politician 
would be afraid of shocking the republican furor of his fellow citi- 
zens, were he to acknowledge that he had drawn his measures from 
such a source. They are apt, also, to be misled by the writings of 
the English and French political philosophers, who have seldom any 
practical knowledge of government, and who make the most confi- 
dent and boundless assertions, with regard to the happy effects on 
society which their suggestions, if carried out, would produce. 

The French social reformers have seldom had the power of put- 
ting their theories into practice. They have lately, however, suc- 
ceeded in bringing their country into a most awful jaredicament, 
and themselves into a still more awful situation. A French 
socialist philosopher would certainly find an audience in Gui- 
ana, at this time, capable of understanding and appreciating 
the sublime truth and accuracy of his theories and reasonings, with 
regard to the infallibility of the human reason, and the perfectibility 
of man. One of the late English reviews states that ten thousand 
of the orators of France have either already been transported to 
Guiana, or are in prison awaiting such a fate, or on their way for 
the purpose of embarkation. If the English do not succeed in 
putting a stop to the progress of social reformers, and political 
reformers, and legal reformers, they will assuredly bring themselves 
and their country into a similar predicament. 

Unfortunately, our politicians, when they fall under the influence 
of such unhappy theories, frequently possess the power of putting 
their theories practically to the test, to the great injury of everything 
that is valuable in our institutions and laws. I have never read a 
speech, or an article, or a book, or a letter, from one of those 
thorough going law reformers, or socialists, that did not produce a 
clear conviction on my mind, that the writers or speakers were 
either wholly destitute of capacities for affairs of state, or that 
where they were not entirely destitute of such capacities, their 



79 

minds were so organized,' that they would be unsafe and dangerous 
men, in whose hands to place the management of public aJBfairs. If 
we were to adopt the scriptural rule of judging the tree by its 
fruits, we would soon get rid of the disciples of Charles Fourier. 
It is scarcely necessary to say, that the schemes of the reforming, 
philosophic, poli^cal projectors of France and England, almost 
always disappoint the expectations and predictions of their advo- 
cates, when practically tested; audit will be a happy day for our 
country, when overwhelming public opinion shall regard such pro- 
jectors in the same light in which Napoleon is said to have regarded 
them, namely, as idiots and imbeciles. 

Mr. Van Buren opposed the proposition to re-organize the judi- 
ciary, although it was supported by the party to which he belonged; 
his reason was, that the only effect would be to remove the judges 
who were then in office. This course was evidently suggested by 
the social kindness of Mr. Van Buren's nature, and the honor and 
liberality which always characterized his intercourse with the pro- 
fession of the law, while at the bar. His great success at the bar 
had removed everything like envy from his mind, with regard to 
the stable prosperity of the judges. 

One of the most dangerous movements on the subject of law 
reform, comes from England. It is an attempt to make parties 
witnesses in their own causes. Lord Brougham alleges, in an argu- 
ment made in the House of Lords, in favor of admitting parties to 
testify in their own causes, that the door is at the present time 
always open for the admission of perjury, in the Court of Chancery; 
and his statements show, that parties will not swear the truth in 
their own causes. Or where they are directly interested in the result. 
One reason he urges, why they will not swear the truth, in their 
own causes, in the Court of Chancery, is, that they have the advice 
of counsel with regard to the eflfect of certain testimony on their 
causes. It is very obvious, that parties will have the advice of 
counsel with regard to the effect of certain testimony on their own 
causes, in the Common Law Courts, as well as in the Court of 
Chancery. But the advocates for the admission of the testimony of 
the parties, may say that they will be thrown off their guard by an 
examination and cross-examination in open court. That will prob- 
ably be sometimes the case, but not generally the case. 

His lordship lays great stress on the four year's experience of 
the County Court judges, in England. That, however, is fairly 



80 

and fully counteracted by the experience of the judiciary of Penn- 
sylvania, at least so far as Pennsylvania is concerned. The judges 
of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, a few years ago, decided 
to exclude a species of testimony which had hitherto been admitted, 
namely, that of parties ^Yho had disposed of their interests in the 
cause. The whole experience of the bar, and of the judiciary of 
Pennsylvania, (a much longer experience than that of the County 
Court judges in England,) had so clearly demonstrated that parties 
would not swear the truth, even in cases in which they no longer 
had an interest, where their passions had once been enlisted, that 
the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania concluded to reject such testi- 
mony in future. [Doubtless, some of them swore the truth, but as 
a general rule they would not swear the truth.] In Pennsylvania 
we had all the advantages of an examination and cross-examination, 
in open court; and the result satisfied the profession and the judici- 
ary, that such testimony, instead of throwing light on the causes, 
generally worked gross injustice. 

Parties in Pennsylvania, transferred their interests for the ex- 
press purpose of giving testimony, which could not otherwise be 
procured, and I may add, that Lord Brougham urges that very rea- 
son for the admission of the testimony of the parties ; namely, that 
they can give testimony which cannot otherwise be procured, and 
that if the testimony of the parties should be excluded, a failure cf 
justice would be inevitable in many cases. He also alleges that the 
parties know more about the cause than any other witnesses, and 
can by their testimony throw more light upon it than would other- 
wise be attainable. It might be alleged that one of the parties only 
was admitted to testify with us in Pennsylvania; but if the evidence 
which the opposite party adduced, together with his allegations, wag 
such as to satisfy the profession and the judieiai-y tliat the party 
admitted to testify had sworn falsely, does any one believe, that if 
the opposite party had been examined on oath, he would not have 
contradicted his adversary. How can it profit the cause of justice 
and good morals, to bring about a swearing match of that kind ? 
What human intellect could ascertain the truth under such circum- 
stances ? 

It will bo perceived, that the cases tested in Pennsylvania, are 
the only kind of cases in which the ingenuity of Lord Brougham 
ean find an absolute necessity for the admission of the testimony of 
the parties and the experience of Peunsylvanin, has shown tliat hia 



81 

lordships reason is not well founded. Lord Brougham alleges, that 
when parties are brought into open court, to give their testimony in 
their own causes, they will swear under a strong suspicion, that 
they are not likely to swear the truth, and that, therefore, they will 
be more careful than when swearino; to affidavits to be used in court 
in their own causes. (Now, be it remembered, that his lordship 
admits, that parties never swear the truth in their own causes, wlien 
their testimony is taken in affidavits.) Now, setting aside the con- 
sideration that it would be placing a sensitive mind in a very un- 
pleasant situation, to have it suspected that lie or she had committed 
perjury. I would respectfully suggest, that both parties will swear 
under precisely the same suspicion, and for that reason, an unprin- 
cipled man will not hesitate to swear falsely, with regard to those 
circumstances in which he knows he can onl}'' be contradicted by his 
adversary, such as conversations with his adversary, when no ono 
■was present, and other circumstances Avhich occurred at a place 
where he knew no one was present but his adversary, who could 
swear that his testimony was false. 

It would be easy to suggest numerous cases, in which his testi- 
mony if believed, would destroy the cause of his adversary, and yet, 
in which it would be impossible for his adversary to show by any 
other testimony than his own, that he had sworn falsely, An un- 
principled man would not hesitate to swear falsely with regard to 
such circumstances, because he would know that the public would 
expect parties to contradict each other on their oaths, as a matter 
of course, and that, therefore, an imputation of perjury would not 
attach to him. A dexterous scoundrel, would of course know how 
to avoid being contradicted, by more than one witness, or one Avit- 
ness with the necessary additional proof to convict him of perjury 
so as to avoid the legal penalties of perjury. Before he would enter 
the lists, he would take care to have himself fully posted up on those 
subjects, by a thorough questioning of his counsel, with regard to 
all such points. A man who would be deterred by public opinion 
from contradicting a disinterested witness on oath, would not hesi- 
tate to contradict his adversary, not having any such fear of public 
opinion in that case. 

It appears, that but one of the County Court Judges in England 
condemns the practice of admitting the testimony of the parties. I 
have heard, however, from a gentleman high in the profession of the 
law, that in several cases, which went from the Countv Courts be- 
ll 



82 

fore tLe twelve or fifteen Judges of England, that said tribunal 
condemned the admission of the testimony of the parties. But, is it 
not probable that a majority of the County Court Judges, are influ- 
enced in their opinions, on what, perhaps may appear to their minds 
a doubtful question, by the current of public opinion in England on 
that subject, particularly by the opinions of the law lords ? The 
law which has excluded the testimony of parties, has lasted for cen- 
turies, and stood the test of centuries of experience. Is it at ail 
probable that the experiment of admitting the testimony of parties 
has not been tested and thoroughly tested in the long history of the 
law, from the time of the twelve tables of the Romans ? Is it at all 
probable, that this extraordinary discovery, that parties could tell 
their own stories the best in a Court of justice, has never been 
thought of before ; a question that would so readily occur to cveij 
legal and legislative mind? 

But it appears from Loi-d Brougham's speech, that it is only for 
sums not exceeding fifty pounds, that parties may give testimony in 
their own causes. Now, all who are acquainted with the state of 
society in England, must be aware, that the great masses of the 
people never go into a Court of Justice, either as parties or wit- 
nesses. Those suits for sums under fifty pounds, nearly all take 
place between parties who are worth probably five or ten thousand 
dollars each, or at least, between parties who are in the habit of 
handling large sums of money, and who are accustomed to business. 
(It is more than probable, that these suits are nearly all for notes 
and accounts, and that the business of the County Courts has been 
little else, except collecting debts.) All who have had any experi- 
ence in business, must be aware that there is seldom much difiiculty 
in settling matters of account between such parties. There is an- 
other circumstance not unworthy of consideration. The County 
Courts seldom use juries. If the testimony of parties should be 
admitted, we will hardly ever see a clear case laid before a jury, all 
will be doubt and uncertainty. All who have heard parties to law 
suits telling their own stories, must be aware, that in ninety-nine 
cases out of a hundred they disagree as to the facts, and can any 
intelligent lawyer doubt that they would contradict each other on 
their oaths also ? That wouhl leave parties at the mercy of the ec- 
centric discretion of a jur^-, in nearly every case. Another bad 
effect would be, that when parties had once sworn falsely, in their 
own causes, it would undermine their moral principles, and they 



83 

would have less hesitation in swearing fulscly in causes iu which 
thej were not interested. It would have the effect of destroying, or 
greatly impairing, all delicacy of honor, conscience and moral feel- 
ing on the subject of false swearing. Business men would be placed 
in a very unfortunate situation. The man who had one hundred 
suits would be con:radicted in ninety nine of them, point blank on 
his oath, and those ninety-nine persons would be prepared to swear 
he was unworthy of belief on his oath ; they would do so to preserve 
their own consistency, if for no other reason ; because parties con- 
tradicting each other, would not be like ordinary witnesses contra- 
dicting each other, which contradictions generally arise on matters 
in which they might possibly be mistaken ; but when parties would 
contradict each other on their oaths, they w^ould generally do so on 
points about which neither of them could possibly be mistaken. 
One or the other, and perhaps both, would commit clear and point 
blank perjury, and the fellow who had actually committed the per- 
jury, would not be the least likely of the two, to make such a charge 
against his adversary. As a matter of course, the testimony of a 
business man, would soon be destroyed. A store keeper who had 
one hundred accounts, would probably find himself brought to a 
dead halt, after he had collected five or six of them, more especially 
if he had been his own book-keeper ; and it is more than probable 
that the testimony of his clerk would not last much longer. Five 
or six witnesses, swearing that a man was unworthy of belief on his 
oath, under such circumstances, would be abundantly sufficient to 
destroy the character of the best of them. 

It may be alleged, that in this instance, the law of Pennsylvania 
permits one party to give testimony, and why not allow the other to 
do so also. But the law only allows one party to give testimony in 
this instance, for the sake of public convenience ; and if the public 
suspect a store-keeper's integrity, they need not go near him at all. 
If they keep away from him and do not have any dealings with him, 
it is scarcely possible that he can successfully fabricate an account 
against them. If all parties, however, should be admitted as wit- 
nesses, a man will not be allowed to select the individual to whom 
he will give the power of appearing against him as a Avitness in the 
trial of his own cause. 

By way of showing the danger of the proposed change, I will 
state a case: — Suppose A were to lend B one thousand dollars and 
to take his note for it ; we will then suppose that B neglects to pay 



84 

the note when due ; A brings suit, and B, a man liitherto of un- 
blemished character, comes into court and swears that he paid A 
nine hundred dollars of the money, but that he neglected to take a 
receipt, or lost his receipt, or that ho relied upon A to put the credit 
on the note, could any man tell how a jury would decide that ques- 
tion ? Such a case is by no means improbable. A clergyman of 
high standing in London, lately forged a note for one thousand 
pounds on a rich man who had died, and was only detected because 
the hand-writing was known to bo a forgery ; if the case had depen- 
ded on his oath, he would probably have been successful. 

Lord Brougham says there is such a thing as subornation of per- 
jury; that, however, is a very difficult and a very dangerous exper- 
mcnt. When a man's passions are excited in his own cause, he 
will swear a lie for a nominal consideration ; but a man must be 
very degraded, indeed, who can ])e hired to swear a lie for any one. 
Indeed, it is surprising how little people care for the result of a 
case, when they are not themselves directly interested in the result. 
The same state of dependence docs not exist in the United States, 
between the emplo3^ed and the employers, which exists in England 
between those classes. Indeed, in the United States, the employed 
are much more likely to entertain prejudices against their employers, 
•when brought up as witnesses, than in their favor. There are, of 
course, numerous exceptions to this rule ; it will hold good, however, 
•with a vast majority of the employed in the L^nited States. 

So clearly has it been demonstrated to the professional mind, 
that the smallest interest in a cause, when a man's feelings have 
once been enlisted and excited, is sufficient to endanger the accuracy 
of his testimony, that the members of the bar, with a just delicacy, 
have hitherto generally refused to serve as counsel in those causes 
in which they were to appear as witnesses. It is wortliy of note, 
that the members of the bar, from their mental discipline, are less 
likely to fall into such errors than any other class of men. Every 
sensitive mind will shrink with horror from the imputation, or even 
the suspicion of perjury. If we wish to preserve the uprightness 
and honor of men, Ave must not allow them to be placed in situa- 
tions in which that delicacy may be impaired or destroyed. Vice 
is always gradual in its approaches; what men Avill shrink from 
■with horror, at one time, tlioy may be brought to do by degrees. 
I will add, by way of conclusion, that if disinterested tei^timony 
can be procured to show tb;it a party has sworn falsely, it will 



show at the same time, that tlie testimony of the party was unne- 
cessaiy. It would be precisely in those cases, in which perjury could 
not be fastened on the parties by disinteresed testimony, that they 
would commit perjury with the least hesitation. 

Lord Brougham, although incapable of taking a statesman-like 
vicAv of great questions, possesses an intellect greatly above medi- 
ocrity, and withal has his mind stored with an extent of information 
seldom equalled; which gives him a dangerous influence in the posi- 
tion which he occupies. His legal arguments are characterized by 
great logical clearness, acuteness, fulness and force of reasoning; 
and it would be no easy matter to detect his want of capacity for 
affairs of state, by reading his arguments at the bar. His lordship, 
however, has so often displayed his powers on great questions of 
state, that he has not left that portion of mankind who know how 
to detect the capacity of a statesman, in doubt as to the danger of 
placing in his hands the power of a lawgiver. Lord Brougham is 
a great lawyer, in point of ability, and respectable in learning, and 
comes very near being a great statesman, also, in point of ability. 
He possesses one of those minds best calculated to puzzle even the 
discriminating part of the public as to the place to which it should 
be assigned. 

Mr. Van Buren, as might most reasonably and rationally have 
been anticipated, by every one capable of forming a correct opinion 
with regai'tl to his capacity and qualifications, took his position, 
during the first session of the United States Senate after his elec- 
tion to that body, as one of the ablest lawyers and statesmen of the 
Union. He gave his support to the efforts of Col. Johnson to abol- 
ish impi'isonment for debt, in actions in the courts of the United 
States, and recommended a bankrupt law, to include corporations 
as well as individuals. He voted for the tariffs of 1824 and 1828; 
the latter was the highest protective tariff we ever had. He has 
since evidently changed his ground on two of the most important of 
those measures. The Free Soil party, from whom he accepted a 
nomination for the Presidency, in 1848, took entire free trade 
ground; and his positions in the democratic party, in 1844 and in 
1852, give us every just reason to believe that he has repudiated 
the bankrupt law. 

Mr. Van Buren sustained the claims of I\Ir. Crawford for the 
Presidency, as fhe successor of jNlr. Monroe ; he assisted in procu- 
ring his nomination by a Congressional caucus. Tiie caucus, how- 



86 

ever, was attended by only one-fourth of tlie members of Congress. 
The caucus nomination was not sustained generally by the demo- 
cratic party throughout the Union. The friends of Mr. Van Buren 
had defeated a law in New York, giving the choice of Presidential 
Electors to the people. Pvir. Crawford, however, only received five 
of the thirty-six electoral votes of the State of New York. It 
having become the duty of the House of Representatives to elect a 
President, Mr. Adams was elected on first ballot, having received 
among his supporters the vote of New York, although the friends 
of Mr. Van Buren did not abandon Mr. Crawford. In the election 
for Governor of New York, in 1S24, the friends of Mr. Van Buren 
were signally beaten by De Witt Clinton, who was elected Gover- 
nor by a large majority. The friends of Mr. Van Buren regained 
their power in the State of New York, during the next year. Mr. 
Clinton, however, was re-elected in 182G, but died before his term 
expired. He died in February, 1828. 

After the election of Mr. Adams, in 1824, Mr. Van Buren is 
said to have advised his friends in New York to give his adminis- 
tration a fair trial. Although reasons of state have been assigned, 
and some of them very just ones, for the opposition which Mr. Van 
Buren soon made to the administration of Mr. Adams, I am per- 
suaded we shall find the true cause of his opposition, in the irresis- 
tible popular current which had set in in favor of Gen. Jackson. 
He saw clearly, that if he did not unite with that party, he would 
be prostrated as a politician. Whatever the real sentiments of Mr. 
Van Buren may have been, with regard to Gen. Jackson and his 
party, if the Adams party had been strong enough to cope with his 
great rival, De Witt Clinton, and the Jackson party of New York, 
I do not believe he would have taken the Jackson side of the con- 
test. It must have been rather an unpalatable course at the time, 
for public opinion pointed out De Witt Clinton, in a manner not to 
be mistaken, as of all others the most likely to ascend the steps of 
the throne, as the successor of Gen. Jackson. 

Mr. Van Buren's first act of noted hostility to the administration 
of Mr. Adams was on the Panama Mission. After that, however, 
he worked zealously and ardently in the cause of Gen. Jackson. 
The professions of the political friends of Gen. Jackson, before the 
election, bore a striking resemblance to the professions of the polit- 
ical friends of Gen. Harrison and Mr. Polk, before their respective 
elections. In each instance, the respective friends of each candi- 



87 

date represented him as favorable to those measures most popular 
in those pirts of the Union in which their professions ■were made. 
Very little was known of the principles of Gen. Jackson on great 
questions of public policy. He was supposed to be in favor of a 
nanonal policy, and it was well understood that he would not pro- 
scribe old federalists. It was generally anticipated, however, by the 
best informed politicians, that he would make a clean sweep of the 
office holders. It was well understood that neutrality would not 
save them: "All who are not for me are against me," was the well 
known doctrine of his friends. It is scarcely necessary to say that 
he fully realized the expectations of his political supporters, so far 
as making a clean sweep of the neutrals and of his political oppo- 
nents from office, was concerned. Although the thorough sweep 
made by Gen. Jackson of the office holders, has been often and 
vehemently denounced, I am persuaded it was a highly popular mea- 
sure at the time. JS^ever were any men more mistaken than the ejec- 
ted office holders were in supposing that the public sympathized with 
them in their misfortunes. The numbers of office hunters in the 
country were very great, and those men had long been in the habit 
of regarding the office holders with feelings of intense envy and 
hatred, which had gradually communicated their influence to a large 
mass of the people. The result was, that Gen. Jackson's popularity 
rose to its highest pitch as soon as the policy of his administration 
was clearly developed on that question. The dislike of the people 
to the office holders was not altogether without just foundation. Ma- 
ny of them really were scamps and vagabonds, some of them licentious 
characters and gamblers, who, notwithstanding their large salaries, 
did not pay their debts. Such men were doubtless objects of dislike 
to all honorable men ; yet it is much to be feared that the experi- 
ence of the country, since Gen. Jackson's time, has demonstrated 
that prudence and economy, when united with the most exemplary 
virtues and the highest ability, are less likely to be tolerated by the 
great masses of people in officials, than a much lower order of ability 
united with improvident habits. Even some vices are less oflensive, 
to the great masses of people, in such functionaries, than virtues 
united with prudence and ecomomy. In private life the virtues of 
prudence and economy are highly esteemed by the people; they 
seldom, however, fancy such qualities when exhibited by officials. 

It was not the vices of some of the office holders, removed by 
Gen. Jackson, which rendered them odious to the great masses of 



88 

the people. It was the mere fact that they held stations which ex- 
cited the envy of their fellow citizens. There was another measure 
of the administration of Gen. Jackson which received the almost 
unanimous approbation of the people, namely: the stand which he 
took against the nuUifiers. Our politicians are certainly very much 
mistaken if they suppose that the great masses of the people regard 
our government as a confederation of independent states. The 
great masses of the people so regarded it at the time when the 
present constitution of the United States was adopted; the present 
generation, however, have read in their school books of the exploits 
of Washington, of Marion, of Jasper, of Putnam and of Warren, 
and have been taught from childhood to regard them all as equally 
their countrymen. In fact, the national government is the only 
government which the great masses of the people really recognize, 
when they form in their minds a conception of their country. They 
look upon the state governments as they would upon the municipal 
governments of so many large cities, exercising limited powers under 
the authority of the state. They regard the national government 
as the only government of the country. It is scarcely necessary 
to say that foreign emigrants entertain similar ideas on that subject. 
The legal educations of the great masses of our statesmen and pol- 
iticians have misled them with regard to the sentiments of the great 
masses of the people on that subject. Our statesmen and politicians 
are nearly all lawyers, and many of them have read in their law 
books the history of the formation of their government. Such men 
have, consc([uentlY, formed correct notions with regard to the res- 
pective powers and authorities of the state governments and of the 
national government; and do not suspect that the people really look 
upon the state governments in the same light in which they would 
regard the municipal government of a large city, situated in one of 
the states. The consequence has been that those politicians who 
regarded themselves as the champions of state rights have, of late 
years, led a party most insignificant in numbers among the people. 
The great influence 'of Mr. Calhoun kept alive a small party pro- 
fessing such principles, during his life time. I venture to say, how- 
ever, that such a party does not exist at the present day in sulBcient 
numbers to justify us in giving it the designation of a part}'. 

Although the nullifiers were clearly wrong and carried their oppo- 
sition to an extent not justified by the constitution and laws; yet the 
people would probably have regarded them with more lenity had 



8d 

they not looked upon the national government as the only government 
of the country. 

So far as a national policy was concerned, it was generally sup- 
posed that Gen. Jackson would pursue the even tenor of his way, 
as Madison and Monroe had done before him ; and that he would 
sanction the protective policy and those two great interpolations on 
the democratic creed, a national bank and a system of internal 
improvements by the geiieral government. Those measures were 
not thought of specifically by the great masses of the people ; but 
the great masses of the people undoubtedly thought that he would 
be a paternal king log, such as Madison and Monroe had been, and 
would not use the veto power for the purpose of interfering with the 
action of Congress and the Senate ; except in the same way in which 
that power had been used by the most compromising of his prede- 
cessors. No one ever imagined for a moment that he would veto 
a law for re-chartering a national bank ; or put a wholesale veto on 
the system of internal improvements, as carried on under the admin- 
istrations which immediately preceded his own. 

It was impossible to perceive that the party which supported Gen. 
Jackson had any settled or decided principles on questions of pub- 
lic policy. I think it very probable that the friends of Mr. Calhoun 
will claim that he and a few of his followers were exceptions to that 
rule ; yet I venture to say, that Mr. Calhoun, had not his prospects for 
the Presidency been blasted by his quarrel with Gen. Jackson, would 
have displayed nearly or quite as great a degree of ductility on mea- 
sures of public policy as Mr. Van Buren did, or was capable of 
doing. When Mr. Calhoun found his prospects blasted for the Pres- 
idency he took a stern and vindictive stand against the administration 
of Gen. Jackson. Many of the ablest of the old federal party who 
had been proscribed by preceding administrations, or who had 
made little progress under them, previous to 1828, emerged from 
obscurity as the champions of Gen. Jackson; the cloak of Jack- 
sonism being, like charity, sufficient to cover a multitude of sins. 
The active politicians in the Jackson party were nearly all office 
hunters, and the leading politicians of the country being nearly all 
opposed to Gen. Jackson, an admirable opportunity was afforded to 
the old federalists of advancing their political fortunes by becoming 
the popular leaders of the Jackson party. A party composed of 
masses who never thought of public measures, and who where only 
actuated by a desire to reward distinguished military services; and 
12 



90 

of active political leaders who were, with few exceptions, as Mr. 
Calhoun afterwards truly described them, only held together by the 
adhesive co-hesiveness of public plunder. All other considerations 
gave way with them before a desire for offices and contracts, and a 
wish to be with the majority. The old federalists who joined the 
Jackson party, it must be admitted, generally laid aside the polit- 
ical integrity which characterized their party in the days of old John 
Adams, as an obsolete idea. They laid aside all ideas of political 
integrity, and absolutely and actually cast that portion of the Jack- 
son party who were actuated exclusively by a desire to obtain the 
spoils, completely into the shade. 

It is but justice to the old federalists to say that many of them 
preserved their personal honor and integrity , unsullied, notwith- 
standing their total abandonment of political principle. As politi- 
cians, they saw with the eyes and heard with the ears of their 
imperial master. The present chief justice of the United States 
has preserved his personal and professional honor and integrity unsul- 
lied in a manner highly honorable to the profession of the law. He 
has administered the law, as chief justice of the United States, with a 
learning, ability and integrity which will send his name down with 
honor to posterity, and reflect a lasting glory upon the administration 
which appointed him. As a lawyer and as a judge he has not been 
an un^vorthy sample of the disciples of George Washington and old 
John Adams. This union of professional and judicial integrity with 
political ductility of principle has often been exhibited in England. 
And at a time when the politicians of the United States so gen- 
erally exhibit ductility of political principle, it is absolutely neces- 
sary to EL- just administration of the law, that the lawyers should 
regard it as a point of honor (never to be violated under any cir- 
cumstances) to lay aside their masquerade policy when they assume 
the duty of participating in the administration of the law. 

Although Mr. Calhoun, after his quarrel with Gen. Jackson, ^ 
assumed a position of stern opposition, he ever afterwards appeared 
to be guided by upright and patriotic motives ; except on these 
questions, namely: nullification, state rights and slavery. I always 
believed and still believe that he agitated those three questions with a 
view to the dissolution of the Union. At the time of the nullification 
excitement I thought he contemplated a dissolution of the Union, 
and the formation of a southern confederacy that would elevate him 
to the Presidency. Towards the close of his life he appeared to 



agitate the slavery question with a feeling of dislike to the gov- 
ernment of his country, and a carelesiS desperation as to the eon- 
sequences. In fact, he appeared to be more irritated by his disap- 
pointments, than thankful for the favors which he had received at 
the hands of his countrymen. In that respect the conduct of Mr. 
Clay and of Mr. Webster forms a favorable contrast to that of Mr. 
Calhoun. The political disappointments of those gentlemen could 
never tempt either of them to turn with a feeling of vindictive hatred 
against the government of their country. 

On all other questions except the three alluded to, Mr, Calhoun 
exhibited in his conduct a becoming senatorial dignity. Upright 
and pati'iotic motives are, to my mind, essential elements in consti- 
tuting true senat^orial dignity. A man cannot possess true senatorial 
dignity unless he is guided by upright and 'patriotic motives in his 
public conduct. 

Gen. Jackson was elected President of the United States, in 1828, 
by an overwhelming majority. In February, 1827, Mr. Van Buren 
was re-elected to the Senate of the United States for six years. 
Gov. Clinton having died suddenly, in February, 1827, Mr. Van 
Buren was nominated by the Jackson party for the oflEice of Gover- 
nor of New York. Mr. Van Buren was elected Governor of New 
York in 1828, and commenced discharging the duties of that office 
on the 1st of January, 1829. In March, 1829, he was appointed 
Secretary of State of the United States by Gen. Jackson. The 
truth is, the friends of Mr. Van Buren nominated and elected him 
Governor of New York, with the express view of giving him a 
position, which they deemed more favorable than any other, to en- 
able him to obtain the office of Secretary of State under General 
Jackson, and thereby secure the best chance of being his successor. 
It was generally understood by the public that such was the cause 
of his nomination and election as Governor. 

From the time of his nomination for that office, public opinion 
clearly pointed to him as the future Secretary of State, and as the 
successor of Gen. Jackson. No intelligent politician, at that time, 
doubted that he would ascend the throne, with as much certainty as 
the oldest son of an English monarch. From the time of the for- 
mation of the Constitution of the United States, the favorite of the 
President had succeeded to the throne, with almost as much regu- 
larity as the heir apparent in Great Britain. The people at that 
time regarded the Secretary of State with nearly the same feelings 



[)2 

which the people in England would exhibit for an heir apparent, of 
great promise in point of ability, and of unexceptionable moral 
character. The truth is, the people looked upon him as the world 
look upon the favorite minister and chosen successor of a popular 
and powerful monarch. 

I always considered the selection of Mr. Van Buren as Secretary 
of State, and as the favorite for the succession, an act of strict 
justice on the part of Gen. Jackson. Mr. Van Buren was unques- 
tionably the ablest statesman in the Jackson party. I know that 
this fact has not been generally conceded; many regarded Mr. 
Calhoun as his superior. I will endeavor to explain why so many 
considered, and still consider Mr. Calhoun his superior in intel- 
lect. Mr. Van Buren took a more comprehensive view of great 
questions of state than Mr. Calhoun, and although he reasoned out 
/^ his propositions very ably, he did not possess the power of illustra- 
ting clearly and fully, by arguments and reasons, all the minute 
details to which his propositions would lead. The views of Mr. 
Calhoun as a statesman, although comprehensive, were not so com- 
prehensive as the views of Mr. Van Buren. He possessed, however, 
in the greatest perfection, what Mr. Van Buren was somewhat 
deficient in — a power of reasoning out the minute details to which 
his propositions would lead, with a clearness, and force, and preci- 
sion, seldom equalled, and probably never surpassed. Some people 
could perceive the superiority of Mr. Calhoun in that way, who 
could not appreciate the superior comprehensiveness of the views 
of Mr. Van Buren ; consequently many claimed for Mr. Calhoun 
the palm of intellectual superiority over Mr. Van Buren. 

Mr. Van Buren continued in the office of Secretary of State 
until June, 1831, when ho resigned, the whole cabinet going out 
with him; some of them, however, very reluctantly, being literally 
turned out by Gen, Jackson. Although there were various causes 
of dispute in the cabinet, I am persuaded the real cause of the 
dissolution of the cabinet was the refusal of the wife of the Vice 
President, and some of the ladies of the other members of the 
cabinet, to associate Avith Mrs. Eaton, the wife of the Secretary of 
War. Gen. Jackson was a man of strong passions and excitable 
feelings. Major Eaton was his biographer, and his intimate personal 
friend. The President warmly espoused the cause of his friend. 
It is quite probable, however, that his strong passions and excitable, 



93 

and somewhat chivalrous feelings and sentiments were wrought 
Tipon by a beautiful and accomplished woman, who he was led by 
his ardent passions to believe, was a persecuted and injured woman. 
I care not to what cause historians and biographers may attribute 
the dissolution of the cabinet, I am convinced Mrs. Eaton was the 
sole cause of that dissolution ; and I am equally Avell convinced that 
the strong passions of Gen. Jackson shaped and even changed his 
political policy, on more than one occasion, during his administra- 
tion as President of the United States. 

On those occasions, when the General changed his political policy, 
the great masses of his followers displayed a ductility of principle 
in following him, such as I venture to say had never been exhibited by 
a large political party in any free government before. It is all true, 
that on some of those great measures Gen. Jackson was bringing 
his friends back to the principles of the old republican party. He 
clearly took the old republican ground, in his opposition to internal 
improvements by the general "government, and in his veto of a 
national bank; and yet those measures (federal as they unquestion- 
ably were) had acquired so firm a hold^upon the popular mind, that 
no other man, placed in the situation of Gen Jackson, at that time, 
could have vetoed them, without incurring inevitable political de- 
struction. His part}^, however, followed him on those occasions, 
and on all other such occasions, during his Presidency, with the 
strict discipline and compact movement of a Macedonian phalanx. 
His most unpopular measures did not produce any serious diminu- 
tion of numbers among his followers. The principal cause of the 
steady support of his party was this : the ruling motive of the pol- 
iticians was a desire to obtain and retain offices, and they saw 
clearly, that his strength with the masses was so great that if they 
attempted to bolt, they would meet with inevitable destruction. 
Popular measures were not sufficient to influence the masses, when 
weighed against the popularity of Gen. Jackson. 

Never was party discipline so strict as that of the Jackson party. 
A man, it is true, might express his views with a good deal of free- 
dom, on any great measure of public policy, if the General's views 
on that measure were unknown; but from the moment the General's 
views were announced, particularly if they were announced in an au- 
thentic shape, all who did not at once modify their opinions, so as to 
agree fully with the General, were instantly and mercilessly expelled 
from the party. The truth is, no one knew what the General's 



doctrines were, until he had explained them, at the time when they 
«^ere to be carried out. The old Jackson party, therefore, held 
themselves in readiness to adopt with implicit obedience any doc- 
trine which might be announced from head quarters, and to enforce 
it upon their fellow citizens, by virtue of party discipline, with a 
persecuting and relentless severity. 

There cannot be a question that the course of General Jackson 
has had the effect of bringing the country back to the principles of 
the old republican party on the subject of a national bank, and on 
the subject of internal improvements by the general government. 
It is equally certain, however, that the administration of Gen. Jack- 
Son adopted the strongest pro-slavery doctrines, and was sustained 
in that course by Mr. Van Buren, with a zeal which appeared to 
step in advance of necessity, by his pledge in his inaugural address, 
to veto any law for the abolition of slavery in the District of Co- 
lumbia. His course drew upon him, I think with justice, the epi- 
thet of the northern man with southern principles. 

After Mr. Van Buren retired from the office of Secretary of 
State, he was appointed Minister to Great Britain. He arrived in 
London in September, 1831, and was received with an unusual de- 
gree of favor by the English Court. The English had doubtless 
formed a just estimate of the great learning and ability of the 
ambassabor ; and the cordiality of his reception was doubtless much 
enhanced by the well known fact, that he was the personal favorite 
and chosen successor of a President of the United States, of most 
extraordinary popularity and power. I have no doubt, Mr. Van 
Buren highly enjoyed his short residence at the Court of Great 
Britain. If he ever entertained feelings of hostility to Great 
Britain, and to an educated aristocracy, I have no doubt he returned 
to his native country with those feelings very considerably mollified. 
No one but a lawyer can form any just conception of the majestic 
dignity with which Great Britain appears to a comprehensive and 
statesman-like mind, educated in the common law. From boyhood, 
up to the period of his appointment as Minister to England, Mr. Van 
Buren had been employed in studying the laws, the history, the lit- 
erature, the language, the religion, the social institutions and the 
political institutions of Great Britain. He had, doubtless, admired 
the manly resolution with which the British aristocracy had breasted 
the torrent of the French Revolution, and the generous magnanim- 
ity with which they had relieved the persecuted and unfortunate exiles 



95 

of their enemies. The comprehensive and statesman-like mind of 
Mr. Van Buren, his education, his manly good sense, and his kind, 
amiable and gentlemanly social habits, rendered him peculiarly lia- 
ble to receive favorable impressions from a visit to the educate^;/} 
aristocracy of England. The visit of his son John to England, d^ 
the time of the coronation of Queen Victoria, is not without weight 
to show that the cordial reception which Mr. Van Buren had re- 
ceived from the Court of Great Britain, and the generous hospi- 
tality with which he was treated by her educated aristocracy, had 
left a permanent impression on his mind. 

Although the friends of jNIr. Van Buren cannot justly claim for 
him the lofty political principles of Canning, and Peel, and other 
English statesmen of modern times, yet John Bull is disposed to 
act with generosity towards his trans-Atlantic cousins, on such 
points, and to regard with complacency a man of good private 
character and of great ability and acquirements, who had on more 
than one occasion exhibited an unquestionable desire to sustain the 
cause of law and order, and of truth, justice and humanity, against 
the attacks of what John regards as a wild democracy. John justly 
considers that manj' grains of allowance are to be made for a states- 
man, who is contending for so noble a prize as the office of Presi- 
dent of the United States, more especially vdien said statesman has 
to deal with the great mass of the people, a tribunal which John 
still regards with fear and trembling. The educated aristocracy of 
Great Britain have always been remarkable for a generous and 
manly ambition to serve their country in public life, and for a 
proper and becoming love of fame. It was natural that such an 
aristocracy should regard with pleasure and satisfaction, a man of 
great ability and acquirements, who, by his industry, address and good 
fortune, had raised himself, without any unusual degree of policy, 
to such a position, that he was about to realize the highest object of 
ambition which his country could bestow. 

Indeed great public stations, as objects of ambition, are held in 
much hiirher estimation in England than in the United States. 
Mr. Van Buren, doubtless, accepted the office of minister to Eng- 
land because he knew it would place him in a position more likely 
to enable him to become the successor of Gen. Jackson, than any "*- 
other position which he could hold under the administration, after 
leaving the cabinet. Gen. Jackson sent the nomination of Mr. Van 
Buren to the senate, soon after congress had assembled. He was 



96 

rejected by that body, because the senators did not consider his 
instructions to Louis M'Lane, the minister to England when he was 
secretary of state, dignified, becoming and national in their char- 
acter. Gen. Jackson and his friends held Mr. Van Buren up before 
the nation as a martyr and as a persecuted man. Although every 
man who possesses a candid and statesman-like mind, and who exam- 
ines the question, will admit that whether the senators were right or 
wrong on that question, they acted from motives and with a dignity 
worthy of ancient Rome. 

In May, 1832, Mr. Van Buren was nominated for the ofiice of 
vice president of the United States by a democratic national conven- 
tion held in Baltimore. Gen. Jackson was nominated for the pres- 
idency by the same convention. They were both elected by a large 
majority. Mr. Van Buren had the same number of electorial votes 
as Gen. Jackson, with the exception of the votes of Pennsylvania, 
which were given to William Wilkins, a gentleman nominated to 
that ofl&ce by the democracy of Pennsylvania. Mr. Van Buren, 
throughout the whole course of the administration of Gen. Jackson, 
or at least when he was in the United States, was supposed, and I 
believed truly, to exercise a greater influence with him than any 
other man. Gen. Jackson exercised a greater influence over his 
party for several years isreceding his election in 1828, and through- 
out the whole course of his administration, than any other president 
has ever exercised over his party since that time. I believe Mr. 
Buchanan Avas correct when he said that "Gen. Jackson was the most 
popular president wo ever had." From the very moment when Gen. 
Jackson left the ofiice of president of the United States he lost infiu- 
ence with his former political supporters to a greater extent, probably, 
than any other man who ever held that office, before or since. 

In May, 1835, the democratic national convention assembled at 
Baltimore, and nominated Martin Van Buren for president, and 
Richard M. Johnson for vice president. Mr. Van Buren received 
170 electoral votes; counting the vote of Michigan, which was not 
given in due form. The other candidates for president received 124 
votes. Inasmuch as Col. Johnson did not receive a majority of the 
whole number of electorial votes, he Avas elected vice president by 
the Senate. 

The inauguration of Martin Van Buren as president of the United 
States, took place on the 4th of March, 1837. During the admin- 
istration of Mr. Van Buren, one of those terrible monetary convul- 



97 

sions took place, of which I have already written in a previous part 
of this work. A general suspension of specie payments took place 
as a consequence of that occurrence. Mr. Van Buren recommended 
a measure called the independent treasury, for the purpose of pre- 
serving the public revenue in future from being swallowed up by a 
suspension of the banks with which it might be deposited, or in whose 
notes it might be collected. I always considered the message in 
which he recommended that measure, the most original and states- 
manlike document which he transmitted to congress while President 
of the United States. An unusual number of office holders under 
the administration of Mr. Van Buren were found to be public de- 
faulters. An unprecedented clamour was raised against the integrity 
of the administration on account of the unusually large number of 
plunderers who had got hold of the public treasure. Mr. Van 
Buren was evidently not a skillful statesman in his mode of man- 
aging such officials. He should have dismissed them promptly the 
very moment he discovered their nefarious transactions ; instead of 
doing so, however, he temporised with some of the worst of them, 
vainly hoping that he could in that way persuade them to disgorge 
their plunder. The result showed that such a hope was indeed a vain 
and fallacious one. An acute observer and thorough man of busi- 
ness, who has had a respectable amount of experience in observing 
the pecuniary transactions of bankrupts and swindlers, whether 
office holders or not, would as soon think of persuading a shoal of 
West India sharks peaceably to give up their prey, as of persuading 
such a class of men peaceably to give up money which they had sur- 
reptitiously obtained, while they were left in situations where they 
might grab more. The enemies of Mr. Van Buren never accused 
him of sharing the spoils with the public plunderers under his admin- 
istration ; he, however, was justly to blame for a want of business- 
like promptness and decision in removing those vagabonds when he 
discovered their nefarious transactions. Such scoundrels should 
never be temporised with for a moment. 

In May, 1840, the democratic party re-nominated Mr. Van Buren 
for the presidency, the experience of the past, however, had not 
been lost upon the whigs, and they nominated Gen. Harrison, with 
a view of increasing their chances of success by his military popu- 
larity. In that expectation they were not disappointed. The defeat 
of Mr. Van Buren in 1840 has often been attributed to the unpop- 
ularity of his measures; such, however, clearly was not the fact. 

13 



98 

Some of his measures and principles were unpopular wlien introduced 
by Gen. Jackson; but previous to 1840 they had gradually worked 
their way into the favor of the people, and the political field looked 
fair for the re-election of Mr. Van Buren. I am persuaded he could 
have beaten any civilian that the whigs could have run against him. 
It was the military popularity of Gen. Harrison which defeated 
Mr, Van Buren. 

Previous to the nomination of Gen. Harrison, the party which 
sustained Mr. Van Buren was evidently decidedly in the ascendant 
throughout the Union. The defeat of Mr. Van Buren affords an 
instructive lesson with regard to the influence of measures in affect- 
ing the votes of the masses of the people, when weighed against 
great military popularity in the opposing candidate. Mr. Van Buren 
had endangered and probably impaired his popularity in the free 
states by the concessions which he had made to conciliate the south. 
He had gone so far that he had justly entitled himself to the epithet 
of the northern man with southern principles. His friends, although 
they admitted that the contest would be a close one in the free states, 
insisted most strenuously that Gen. Harrison could not have the 
slightest chance of success at the south. It is certain that the prip- 
ciples of Gen. Harrison, had he been a civilian, would have caused 
his defeat at the south. The result, however, was that he received 
234 electoral votes, and Mr. Van Buren received GO. Mr. Van 
Buren had been elected in 1836 by the popularity of Gen. Jackson. 
The position of Gen. Jackson, as President, enabled him to transfer 
a large portion of his popularity to his candidate for the succession. 
The sense of the country was at that time opposed to the principles 
of the administration of Gen. Jackson, and it would have been 
impossible to have elected a civilian to the Presidency who professed 
those principles, had he not been sustained by the overwhelming 
popularity of the President. 

Perhaps one of the most singular features of the campaign of 
1840 was the part taken in it by the ladies. They attended conven- 
tions in large numbers, and were frequently hauled in large four 
horse wagon loads, with flags streaming in the wind, and signing, 
with ardent zeal, partizan songs. It must be admitted that they gen- 
erally took the Harrison side of the question. It is more than pro- 
bable that the whigs had recourse to the assistance of the ladies, 
because they had been groaning for twelve long years in a hopeless 
minority, and despaired of success, unless by the most unusual and 



99 

estraorJinary efforts. Great and even terrible as the popularity of 
Gen. Jackson really was, I am persuaded it excited exaggerated 
fears in the breasts of his adversaries. 

If Gen. Harrison had occupied the position occupied by Mr. 
Adams, in 1828, Gen. Jackson could not have been elected. I 
have read an anecdote which shows that Mr. Van Buren always 
wishes to hear the truth from his friends : Mr. Van Buren remarked, 
after the election, that every body had deceived him with regard to 
his prospects, except Messrs. Wright and Butler. Those gentlemen 
had been so long intimate with Mr. Van Buren, that they knew tho 
surest way to his confidence and respect, and pursued that course 
by refusing to flatter or deceive him with regard to his prospects. 
The Independent Treasury law was passed during the administra- 
tion of Mr. Van Buren, but Avas repealed under that of his succes- 
sor; it has since been passed, however, and is now the law. 

When Mr. Van 'Buren left the ofiice of President of the United 
States, in 1841, he retired to his country seat, near Kinderhook, to 
enjoy such pleasures and comforts as wealth and a cultivated and 
cheerful mind could bestow. He is said to extend a liberal, kind, 
and graceful hospitality to his friends and neighbors. He appears 
disposed to spend the evening of his life like Prior's old English 
baron — "in gentlemanly ease and rural sport; joyful to live, yet 
not afraid t© die." Mr. Van Buren is said to possess an ample 
fortune. His friends made most energetic efforts to secure his 
nomination for the Presidency, in 1844, and they succeeded in 
electing a majority of delegates, who they had every reason to 
believe were favorable to his nomination. The convention, hoAvever, 
unexpectedly adopted a rule requiring a vote of two-thirds to secure 
the nomination, and in that Avay succeeded in defeating Mr. Van 
Buren. James K. Polk, of Tennessee, was nominated. Mr. Van 
Buren was opposed to the annexation of Texas, and that was the 
cause of his defeat. 

The characteristics of Mr. Van Buren's mind, and his previous 
course as a politician, render ic certain that he would have modified 
his views, so as to have put them in consonance with the views of a 
majority of that convention if he had deemed such a course necessary 
to secure his nomination. He thought, however, that he had already 
secured a majority, that would nominate him without •compelliug 
him to make a sacrifice of his former principles on that question. 
Mr. Van Buren, notwithstanding his great political experience and 



100 

knowledge of mankind, in my opinion, fell into a great error, in 
countenancing knaves among his political supporters, and in ad- 
vancing them, and in allowing them to be advanced to stations of 
political influence and power. It may be possible that he found the 
political organization to which he was attached so corrupt, that he 
could not pursue any other course, without endangering his political 
success. It might have caused serious and well grounded alarm 
and consternation among his followers, had he announced seriously, 
confidentially and truly, or by his conduct shown, that he would 
in future only countenance honorable andupright men among his 
political supporters. 

The candid mind, that has witnessed the state of political morality 
in the United States, for the last twenty years, will admit, that if 
Mr. Van Buren entertained such apprehensions as have been sug- 
gested, those apprehensions were not groundless. It would certainly 
have caused a most alarming depletion in the ranks of his followers, 
had the knaves been expelled from those ranks. Mr. Van Buren 
finally fell a victim to this error, if error it was, whereupon his 
more immediate friends made a great clamor about political moral- 
ity. If we take a philosophic view of the subject, we shall be sur- 
prised to observe how great a resemblance there is between the mo- 
tives which govern our great political leaders, and the motives which 
govern the great masses of our politicians. Mr. Van Buren pos- 
sessed an artful and powerful mind, and he calculated that the 
position which he occupied would enable him to use the great masses 
of democratic politicians as instruments for advancing his own ambi- 
tious and perhaps selfish projects. He made his professions to his 
followers, and distributed his favors among them, with a selfish 
view to tbose ends. His followers were actuated by precisely simi- 
lar motives, when they cheated him out of the nomination for the 
Presidency, in 1844. They thought they could find another leader, 
who could minister more effectually than he could, to their own 
selfish and ambitious projects. 

Messrs. Wright and Butler were the only politicians between 
whom and Mr. Van Buren an intimate personal and confidential 
friendship appeared to subsist. Those gentlemen adhered to 
him with honorable fidelity, and would probably have sacrificed 
their own political prospects to have advanced his. It is equally 
probable that Mr. Van Buren would have made sacrifices to have 
Bustaincd Messrs. Wright and Butler. His connexions, how- 



101 

ever, with the great masses of his followers were conducted in a—x 
very different spirit. Feelings of disguise and concealment, and ) 
perhaps of selfishness, characterized Mr. Van Buren in his inter- 
course with the masses of his followers ; and feelings of disguise, 
and concealment, and selfishness, characterized the masses of his 
followers in their intercourse with Mr. Van Buren. Retributive 
justice appeared to be awarded to him with an even hand, in both 
instances. 

Mr. Clay has also exemplified in a remarkable manner, the vast 
difference between your bull goring my ox, and my bull goring 
your ox. It was certainly the general habit of Mr. Clay to aban- 
don his political friends, when they could no longer sustain them- 
selves with the people; and yet he complained most bitterly of the 
treachery and injustice of his political friends, when they abandoned 
him for a precisely similar reason. Our great men are too apt to 
calculate that the depth and power of their intellects enable them 
to conceal their real thoughts and motives from the world. Mr. 
Clay was certainly much more frank and sincere in his intercourse 
with the world, on great questions of state, than Mr. Van Buren. 
In his intercourse, with the great masses of his followers, however, 
his professions of friendship for them were quite as delusive and 
selfish as those of Mr. Van Buren on similar occasions. 

I shall here make a quotation from Gibbon, for the purpose of 
showing the unsophisticated portion of my readers, that policy, 
hypocrisy and concealment, when exhibited by a great statesman, 
on great questions of state and of public policy, are nothing new 
under the sun. Gibbon, when writing of the Roman Emperor, 
Severus, remarks — "Falsehood and insincerity, unsuitable as they 
seem to the dignity of public transactions, offend us with a less 
degrading idea of meanness, than when they are found in the inter- 
course of private life. In the latter they discover a want of cour- 
age, in the other only a defect of power. And as it is impossible 
for the most able statesmen to subdue millions of followers and 
enemies, by their own personal strength, the world, under the name 
of policy, seems to have granted them a very liberal indulgence of 
craft and dissimulation." 

Our executive ofiicers, both state and national, have, to my mind, 
displayed a singular want of sagacity, for many years, in their 
selections for offices. Their ruling object, when they make such 
selections, is to choose such men as will add strength to their party. 



102 

and advance tlieir own political prospects. Now, it is a singular 
fact, that tlie administration of Gen. Washington, actuated by the 
most upright and patriotic^motives in making their selections for 
offices, pursued a course more eminently calculated, even as a mat- 
ter of political policy and sagacity, to strengthen the administration, 
than any course which the ablest unprincipled politician could possi- 
bly devise. That policy consisted in selecting from their party those 
men who were most remarkable for acquirements, ability and integ- 
rity. It is really surprising, that a man so remarkable as Mr. Van 
Burcn for acquirements, ability, and knowledge of mankind, should 
not have become more thoroughly convinced than he appears to 
have been, long ago, that no reliance could be placed on knavish 
political supporters. 

I have heard such a proverb as "Honor among thieves," although 
the late police investigations have shown said proverb to be a fal- 
lacy. I have yet to learn, however, that there is any proverb which 
shows that there is honor among knaves. A man Avho is really and 
intrinsically a knave, never can be relied upon. It is impossible 
for any man to calculate the moment at which he will be deserted 
and betrayed by such a supporter. I venture to say, if Mr. Van 
Buren had uniformly, through life, used all honorable means to 
elevate that portion of his political friends and followers who 
were most remarkable for abilities, acquirements and integrity, 
that he would not, in his old age, have had reason to complain of 
the wholesale treachery of the political organization of his party 
towards him. 

Political leaders, and public functionaries, to be useful to a party, 
ought to possess the confidence of the people. Now, will any acute 
observer look around him, at the ordinary transactions of life, and 
say that a knave possesses the confidence of the people, or even the 
confidence of the knavish portion of the people ? From this natural 
sagacity of the people, our political leaders might learn a very useful 
lesson. They think they are wiser than the people, and that they can 
trust knaves to a certain extent, and use them for the advancement of 
their own selfish and ambitious projects; the experience of a life- 
time will be very apt to enlighten many of them as to their error. 
To form a political organization of knaves, is to bring together a 
body of men who cainiot place any confidence whatever in ono 
another, and who will be incessantly attempting to undermine, 
denounce and cheat each other. It can be demonstrated to tlic 



103 

satisfaction of all men of really superior intellects, that honesty 
would be the best policy on the part of our executives and leading 
politicians, when they undertake to select public functionaries. 
Where public functionaries are able and upright, even when they 
are not generally known to the community when first selected, they 
soon become more generally known, than men who are destitute of 
those qualities, or deficient in those qualities ; and they acquire the 
confidence of the public, and a Aveight and an influence with the 
public, such as their unworthy competitors never could attain to. 

Now, is it not evident to the mind of every statesman, that an 
administration composed of such men must inevitably acquire the 
public confidence, to a much greater extent, and give strength and 
dignity to a party, to a much greater extent than any other body 
of men who could possibly be selected. Although the people are 
not always accurate in their decisions, with regard to the capacities 
and acquirements, and moral characters of men, even Avhen those 
men are placed before them, in situations equally favorable, for the 
purpose of attracting their attention, and for the purpose of ena- 
bling them to form their opinions without any unfair bias. Yet 
there is an enlightened and powerful public opinion among the 
people, which discriminates with great accuracy on those questions, 
and which is entitled to a much greater degree of respect than is 
generally conceded to it, on those questions, by our politicians and 
statesmen. I know that our politicians and statesmen generally 
profess the most unbounded confidence in the intelligence of the 
people ; they show us, however, by their actions, that they regard 
us as the most stupid, ignorant, and silly of all earthly tribunals. 
A politician would not attempt to deceive even a justice of the peace 
with such transparent and shallow devices as he will use without 
hesitation, for the purpose of deceiving the great masses of the 
people. 

It has long been regarded as a rule of good sense and of good 
breeding, never to attempt to deceive those for whose intelligence 
we have a feeling of respect : now is it not a notorious fact that our 
politicians and statesmen, almost without exception, when they pre- 
pare a document or a speech for the public, do so with a deliberate 
design to deceive them. They will acknowledge frankly among their 
friends in private that their real sentiments are very different from 
those they have given to the world. These men will often appeal 
with artful and diabolical skill to what they suppose arc the prcju- 



104 

dices of the people, for the purpose of exciting popular indignation 
and hatred against their political rivals or competitors, because those 
rivals or competitors have expressed opinions precisely similar to 
those which they really entertain themselves; hut against which 
they suppose that a popular prejudice exists. While the politicians 
profess to consider us their masters, they treat us not only as slaves, 
but as slaves deplorably deficient in intellect and intelligence. A 
well bred Englishman would not state a falsehood in the presence 
of his sovereign : in this country the people are the sovereigns, and 
every well bred man should behave in their presence as a well bred 
Englishman would behave in the presence of his sovereign. Truth 
and correct information should alone reach the royal ears. 

If I could persuade the people to be of my way of thinking, I 
am much inclined to believe we "should teach our politicians and 
statesmen that their professions about being the servants of the 
people were not altogether unmeaning sounds. They would find it 
necessary very seriously to reform both their morals and their man- 
ners; or they would soon find that their professions were based 
upon a practical reality. I wish I had the power of convincing our 
statesmen and politicians of what I know to be true beyond all doubt 
or cavil, that no man can place confidence in a knavish friend or 
supporter, or coadjutor; you may rely upon it, if he will cheat 
others he will cheat you also if a proper opportunity occurs. The 
man who employs such persons will either come to that conclusion 
in the long run, or show the world by his example that he ought to 
have come to that conclusion. 

Mr. Van Buren, during his tour through New York in 1839, ex- 
tolled the intelligence of the people in his speeches, and said sub- 
stantially that our public men did not rely with a sufliciently abiding 
confidence on the intelligence of the people. It was predicted by a 
friend of Mr. Van Buren who had formed a tolerably accurate idea 
of the character of his mind, that if he should be defeated in 1840 
he would soon preach a very different doctrine. Well, Mr. A^'an 
Buren was badly beaten in 1840, and he really soon literally fulfilled 
the prediction of his friend by preaching a very different doctrine. 

Mr. Van Buren, in one of his letters before the nomination in 
1844, substantially told the people, in a manner not to be mistaken, 
that if they did not re-elect hira, they were incapable of self govern- 
ment. This reproach was certainly not in good taste. Whatever 
may be the faults of the people it did not become a man who had 



105 

received so many favors at their hands to turn so suddenly upon them 
after his first defeat, with a reproach so contemptuous. 

Mr. Van Buren in 1839 had every reason to believe that ho was 
sailing on the flowing tide of popular favor. Through a long and 
eminently prosperous life, he had uniformly received favors of a 
most substantial and flattering character, from the people. What- 
ever might have been the effects of the workings of our popular 
institutions on the worldly prosperity and political success of other 
great statesmen, in his case, those eftects had been every thing 
that he could reasonably desire. In 1839 he, doubtless, felt a com- 
placent love for the people, and a sincere respect for the intelligence 
of the people. He had obtained every thing under the workings of our 
popular institutions, that his own good sense taught him he had any 
right to claim as justly his duo. In 1840, however, he had been de- 
feated by a man greatly his inferior in intellect, and his opponents 
had raised their loudest clamors against those measures of his admin- 
istration which his judgment taught him were clearly right. It was 
natural that he should look upon the people and upon our popular 
institutions in a very difi"erent light when suffering under the mortifi- 
cation of a defeat under such circumstances, from the light in which 
he had regarded the people and our popular institutions when riding, 
on (what he supposed to be) the swelling tide of popular favor. 

A change equally striking had taken place in the opinions of John 
Quincy Adams, under circumstances of a very similar character- 
Between 1824 and 1828, his presidential term, Mr. Adams had 
partaken of a public dinner on the ground where the battle of North 
Point was fought, below the city of Baltimore. On that occasion 
he had given as a toast the words, "Ebony and Topaz," and he had 
explained them to mean the spirit of darkness and the spirit of light. 
He professed to intend by his allusion, to cover the cause of Great 
Britain with the spirit of darkness and the cause of the United 
States with the spirit of light. We all remember how very seriously 
Mr. Adams modified those views after he had been expelled from 
the Presidency by Gen. Jackson. On one occasion, Avhen he was 
engaged in discussing the merits of Mr. Calhoun's despatch on the 
slavery question, he exclaimed, "We shall see what answer the suc- 
cessor of Elizal)eth will return to this." 

Mr. Van Buren has declared since his defeat in 1840, tliat what- 
ever ambition he may have felt at one time, to become President 
of the United States, said ambition has no longer an existence. 
14 



106 

I am persuaded he did not take a philosophic view of the impulses 
of his own mind and heart when he made that declaration. The 
love of power and fame and prominent political position, is so natu- 
ral to the minds and hearts of great statesmen, that I believe if Mr. 
Van Buren's wishes were tested on the subject by an actual bona fide 
offer of the Presidency, by those having the power to bestow it, he 
would not only accept the position, but accept it with a feeling of 
gratified ambition. And I think it highly probable, that whatever 
may be his opinion at the present moment, with regard to the capa- 
city of the people for self-government, he would once more begm to 
perceive their searching intelligence and pre-eminent capacity and 
inclination to promote the cause of justice and good government, 
when entrusted with political power. 

We now come to the last political act of Mr. Van Buren's life. 
In 1848, he permitted the Free Soil party to place him before the 
nation, as their candidate for the Presidency. This was certainly 
a most extraordinary movement on the part of Mr. Van Buren. 
That he, through life, really disliked slavery, or any system of gov- 
ernment which inflicted extreme cruelty on the human race, I firmly 
believe. It is equally certain, that in the Free Soil movement in 
1848, he sustained the original principles of the Democratic party 
on the subject of slavery, as expounded by Jefierson; and it is 
equally certain, that Mr. Van Buren, in his letter on that subject, 
sustained those principles with a comprehensiveness of views and 
extent of research, which surpassed those exhibited by any other 
man who wrote or spoke on that subject; but he most assuredly 
placed too low an estimate on the intelligence of public opinion; if 
he supposed that he could convince that public opinion, that his 
course in 1848, was consistent with the course Avhich he had taken 
in his inaugural address, and with his course on the subject of sla- 
very during the administration of Gen. Jackson, and during his 
own administration, his attempt to reconcile his course on the sub- 
ject of slavery in 1848, with his former course on that subject was 
fruitless. 

I always thought, that John Quincy Adams, in his zealous oppo- 
sition to slavery, was stimulated by a desu-e to acquire an European 
reputation, and I think it quite probable, that a similar motive had 
a good deal of weight in inducing Mr. Van Buren to take the stand 
which he did on the slavery question in 1848. It is all true, that 
VIr. Van Buren, on the Missouri (lucstion in 18:i0, had taken simi- 



107 

lar ground; that, however, ^vas in better days; a northern man 
with southern principles, would then have been a rant avis in terns. 
Since the nomination of Pierce and King, Mr. Van Buren has pla- 
ced himself once more fully and clearly in the ranks of the regular 
organization of the Democratic party. The success which attended 
Mr. Van Buren's practice at the bar, renders it quite certam, that 
he did not seek political elevation with a view to pecuniary gam. 
It is certain that he could have acquired a much larger share of 
wealth than he has done, if he had devoted his time exclusively to 
the profession of the law. No office that he ever sought or accep- 
ted, was at all likely to afford him such a favorable opportunity of 
accumulating wealth, as a practice at the bar worth ten thousand 
dollars a year. In entering political life, h« was unquestionably 
actuated by a desire for power and fame, and perhaps by a patriotic 
wish to serve his country. It is fit, just and proper, and for the 
benefit of the country, that a man possessing such an iatellect as 
Mr. Van Buren possesses, should devote a portion of his time to 
affairs of State as well as to the law. 

It is greatly to be regretted, that the people do not more justly 
appreciate the importance of elevating men of superior intellects, 
acquirements and high characters, to high political stations. De 
Tocqueville alleges that the people do not desire to elevate men of 
superior intellects, acquirements and high characters, to such sta- 
tions. He alleges that such men excite the envy of their fellow 
citizens, when placed in high political stations, or what amounts to 
the same thing in substance. He alleges that they systematically 
select men, who arc destitute of those high qualities; because such 
men, when placed in high political stations, cannot excite the envy 
of their fellow-citizens. If 'this charge is true, I fear it will be a 
hopeless task to reason with the people on that subject And yet, 
it would seem very just and reasonable, that, inasmuch as the 
great masses of mankind do not possess superior intellects them- 
selves, they should feel less envy at the elevation of a man really 
superior to them in intellect, than at the elevation of a man only 
equal to them, or perhaps inferior to them in intellect. The great 
intellects of the country are few in number, and if all who really 
possess superior intellects, were placed in high political positions, a 
wide field would still remain for mediocrity office hunters. If the 
course which I have suggested, should be adopted, public affairs 
would be wisely and ably managed. Such a course on the part of 



108 

the people would encourage men of superior intellects to prepare 
themselves for such stations, by a proper course of study and read- 
ing. We should then get rid of a reproach made against us, with 
too much truth, by foreigners, that the great masses of our people 
when entrusted with political power, delight in degrading every 
thing that is upright, manly, noble and generous in the human in- 
tellect and character. 

Whatever avarice or narrow-minded worldly wisdom may urge 
to the contrary, I think a successful lawyer, who possesses the ca- 
pacity of a statesman, and who has accumulated as much property 
as will render himself and his family comfortable and independent, 
ought to devote a portion of his time to public affairs. I think such 
a course, on the part of such a man, under such circumstances, 
would be wise, patriotic and praise-worthy. Indeed, I do not know 
but he would act a wiser part, even according to the narrowest 
worldly wisdom, who would manage to give his children good educa- 
tions, and start them comfortably in life, than if he were to spend 
his whole life-time in accumulating a fortune of fifty or one hundred 
thousand dollars for them, of which, three-fourths of them would 
probably waste their portions, before he was ten years in the grave. 
It is certain, that no wise or prudent man will neglect to provide 
for the comfort and independence of his family ; and if we are to 
judge of the future by the present mode of managing our great 
statesmen, I would not risk my reputation for common sense, by 
advising any statesman, however able to enter on that course of life 
until he has first secured an independent competence for himself 
and his family. 

It is certain that De Tocqueville has described the intellectual cal- 
ibers, acquirements, and moral characters of the members of our 
legislative bodies with singular accuracy and justice. He says that 
the Senate of the United States is the only really able legislative 
body in the Union. lie says there is not a man of superior intellect 
in the House of Representatives. The great mass of the members of 
the House of Representatives at the time when De Tocqueville wrote, 
were certainly such as he has described them to be. In the early 
days of the republic such an assertion could not have been truly 
made witli regard to the members of the House of Representatives. 
Now, notwithstanding this deplorable state of afiairs, is it not gen- 
erally true that the great masses of our people really believe that 
merit is sure to receive its just reward in the distribution of offices? 



109 

It is certain that many of our young aspirants for office get their 
minds somewhat enlightened on that point by a few years of expe- 
rience. It is so much the fashion of the times, however, for all 
stump orators, party organs and politicians to administer unadul- 
terated praise on the workings of our institutions and on the infalli- 
bility of the people, that it is not an easy matter for an inexperi- 
enced mind to avoid being imposed on at first by a clamour so 
universal. I have remarked on more than one occasion, that when 
either party nominates a man remarkable or unusually noted for im- 
becility and knavery, they take an infinite degree of pains to con- 
vince the people that the candidate is an able and an honest man. 
If the people really desire to vote for able and honest men, I would 
respectfully suggest that our great political parties place too low an 
estimate on their understandings if they suppose that it would not 
be easier to persuade them that men who really possessed superior 
intellects and qualifications actually possessed them, than to persuade 
them that imbeciles and knaves possessed those high qualities. It 
would also be an inestimable saving in the wear and tare of con- 
science on the part of our orators, journals and politicians. If I have 
expressed an opinion that men who possess statesman-like intellects 
should prepare themselves for public life under certain circumstances, 
I am equally decided in my conviction that men of mediocrity intel- 
lects should never seek such stations. Such men, if they desired to do 
so, could not acquire the necessary information to make them val- 
uable in such stations. Being incapable of taking statesman-like 
views on great questions, they will neither appreciate nor relish the 
information necessary to a correct understanding of those questions, 
and will never be able to compare with statesman-like minds in the 
extent of their information on such subjects ; even where the parties 
on most subjects have equally strong memories, and the only dif- 
ference between them is in comprehensiveness of views and states- 
manlike ideas. Men appear to me to possess a power of acquiring 
information in proportion to the number of their faculties. I have 
met with instances in which one man possessed, united in one mind, 
all the different faculties which characterized the minds of half a 
dozen other men of the same grade of caliber with himself; and 
yet of the other half dozen men, each one possessed some faculty 
which not one of the remainder of the half dozen possessed. The 
first one alluded to, who possessed all the useful intellectual faculties 
of the other six men united in one mind, could acquire an amount 



110 

of general information greatly surpassing that which could be ac- 
quired by any one of the other six. By his various faculties of 
reasoning and by his combinations of views and elements, he could 
make himself much more efficient in many of the avocations of life 
than any of the other six men, particularly, in the law and in affairs 
of state. Indeed, in aiFairs of state, great minds are the only 
ones that possess any substantial value for executive and legisla- 
tive offices. Men of mediocrity intellects have no legitimate claims 
to such offices; indeed, such offices ought not to be sought 
by such men, and ought not to be conferred on them, when 
men of superior intellects can be procured for such stations, 
who advocate the right kind of principles, and who are otherwise 
well qualified to fill them. I will add, that however natural it is, 
that an ambitious love of fame should actuate great minds, in their 
struggles for place and power, and however strong such motives may 
be in urging them to honorable and upright actions ; and however 
politic it may be, that such motives should be encouraged and stim- 
ulated in their minds, I think, nevertheless, that the people should 
choose their officers precisely as they would choose a man to do a 
job of work for them. They should always choose those men who 
will perform the work m the best manner. If this rule were adopt- 
ed and faithfully carried out, I think it would soon banish imbecility 
and corruption from our high places. If abilities, acquirements, 
good moral characters, and faithful and honorable public services, 
were always sure to give those who possessed such qualifications an 
advantage in their contests for offices, it is surprising what a pro- 
digious moral reformation it would bring about. I have often been 
startled to observe what a prodigious amount of endurance our office- 
hunting fellow citizens exhibit in restraining their passions, and con- 
cealing their sentiments, when such restraints and concealments 
appear to them to be necessary, for the purpose of advancing their 
political interests. The powers of endurance which they exhibit 
on such occasions, are so remarkable, that I have often felt great 
regret that such powerful motives were not turned to the paths of 
truth and virtue. An ardent desire for offices is excusable, and 
perhaps praiseworthy, on the part of those who possess superior 
qualifications to fill them , but such a desire is not excusable on the 
part of those who do not possess such qualifications. The people 
should so effectually rebuke the aspirations of the men of medioc- 
rity intellects for such stations, that they would in future devote 



Ill 

themselves exclusively to the affairs of private life. And I must 
confess, if we take a rational view of such subjects, and leave all 
delusions out of the way, it would not be difficult to satisfy nearly 
all intelligent minds, that such a course would be most conducive to 
the happiness of the great mass of office-holders and office-hunters 
themselves. 

Some of our most candid and able statesmen have declared that 
our office-holders have been depreciating in intellect, and in educa- 
tion, and in moral character, at a most frightful but steady rate, 
nearly ever since the foundation of this government. It is difficult 
to convince the great masses of the community of this fact ; they per- 
ceive the great advances which have been made by the civilized world 
in modern times, in the material sciences, and it is not an easy mat- 
ter to convince them that a similar improvement has not taken place 
in the science of government. I cannot help thinking, that if due 
attention were given to the subject, the minds of a large portion of 
the men of mediocrity intellects might be taught to regard office- 
holding and office-hunting in very different lights from those in 
which they now regard those occupations. 

The honest, industrious and thriving mechanic, or laborer, or 
farmer, is seldom the man who is likely to obtain an office, and yet 
private life opens some of its most attractive paths to such a man. 
He may obtain a beautiful and virtuous wife and have a healthy 
and virtuous offspring; and with economy and good management, 
comfort and independence, and even wealth, are almost certainly 
within his reach. If he unites with those advantages uprightness 
in his intercourse with the community, and a humane and just 
demeanor, he will occupy a far more desirable position in society, 
and leave behind him a more lasting good name than the ephemeral 
politicians of the day. 

Although it is certain that the people frequently do great injus- 
tice to the characters of men, it is, nevertheless, surprising with 
what acuteness they will perceive the merits of a man, if it is cer- 
tain that he does not seek and is not likely to obtain an office. Even 
under such circumstances, however, a man would be greatly deceived, 
who should anticipate truth and justice, on all occasions, at the 
hands of the people. I very much question whether the most suc- 
cessful, among the men of mediocrity intellects, in obtainig offices, 
would not gladly exchange stations and characters with lionorablc, 
upright and intelligent mechanics, and laborers and farmers, who 



m 

had been successful in raising themselves and their families to com- 
fort and independence in life, even where such office-holders have 
themselves attained to comfort and independence in their circum- 
stances, results which it must be admitted are seldom attained by 
office-holding. There are probably one hundred fortunes acquired 
by men who have never held an office, for every one acquired by an 
office-holder. Fortunes thus acquired do not subject the owners to 
the same degree of envy which fortunes acquired by office-holding 
would do. Nearly all office-hunters — and their name is legion — 
envy a successful office-holder his gains ; they appear to think that 
they have themselves been robbed of their just rights, in not being 
permitted to obtain those offices and those gains. 

Let us now turn to another circumstance. What do mediocrity 
intellects gain, in the way of fame, by the usual success which 
attends them, when they get into our legislature, or into Congress, 
or even into state executive offices ? A man of mediocrity intellect, 
who gets into the legislature, after two years' service, (the usual 
limit,) returns home a broken-down politician, more insignificant in 
the estimation of his fellow citizens than he would have been if he 
had never held any office whatever. They look upon him as a man 
who has had his turn of power and dignity. Those men, if politi- 
cians by profession, in two or three years, are usually so reduced in 
circumstances, that to avoid the degradation which attends destitu- 
tion, they frequently remove to some part of the country where 
their pride will not be so often wounded by a reminiscence of better 
days. They see everywhere around them, men who began the world 
without the advantages which they possessed, and who having had 
the good fortune to be violently repulsed by the people, in their 
first attempts to procure offices, or who perhaps having voluntarily 
turned their attentions to the other avocations of life, have acquired 
comfort, independence, and even wealth. They cannot endure their 
own humiliation in such society, and consequently remove from it. 

John S. Skinner complained of the difficulties which he encoun- 
tered in inducing farmers to meet and to form agricultural societies 
He said that the great political leader had only to announce that 
he would address the people, and he could gather a meeting at any 
cross-roads, to be caught and clipped like a Hock of sheep, for the 
benefit of their great pohtical leader. Although great pohtical 
leaders unquestionably flourished in Skinner's day, I think it will 
soon require a more than ordinary degree of audacity, to call our 



113 

political leaders great Skinner was right as to the actual results. 
The people were literally caught and clipped for the benefit of their 
great political leaders. He docs not, however, appear to have sus- 
pected the true motives of the people in assembling. Their real 
objects were to catch and clip their great political leader, and 
throuffh him, to influence the national and state executives and the 
party organizations, with a view to their own advancement and the 
advancement of their relatives, in the way of obtaining ofiices and 
party nominations ; that the great masses of such aspirants have 
not the smallest probable prospect of success, is absolutely certain. 
Indeed, it would require the mental magnifying powers of Lord 
Ross's telescope, to perceive the prospects which the great masses 
of office hunters really have of succeeding. It is surprising how 
little the great masses of the people really have to do with the dis- 
tribution of ofiices. The whole business is generally managed by 
the political leaders and managers, they make nearly all the execu- 
tive appointments and party nominations. 

It is all true, that the party nominations are sometimes, but very 
seldom, however, defeated by the people. The candidate of one or 
the other of the parties, is generally successful. Aspirants to office 
will be much more likely to succeed by turning their attentions to 
the political leaders and managers, than by turning their attentions 
to the people. I must confess, however, that I am wholly unable 
to suggest any line of conduct, which can be relied on with reason- 
able certainty, as leading to the favor, either of the political leaders 
and managers, or of the people. The fortunate discoverer of such 
a system, could certainly command wide-spread attention through- 
out the United States. The delusive idea, that the great masses o 
the people manage such matters, misleads many people. Nearly 
every man imagines that he has friends among the people, who 
would vote for him for ofilce, if they had an opportunity to do so, 
and ho confidently anticipates success, when a candidate for office, 
until he tests the matter and finds to his astonishment, that they 
Avill not vote for him ; he is apt then to become soured in his inter- 
course with his fellow men. People will scarcely credit me, Avhen 
I assure them, that those men whose chances for offices are abso- 
lutely hopeless, are often much better liked and much more highly 
esteemed by the very people who voted against them, than their 
successful rivals. 

Indeed, I think in all candor and sincerity, that defeated aspi- 
15 



114 

rants for offices, ought not to be too Lastj, in concluding that they 
do not possess the confidence and good will of their felloAV-citizens. 
I shall now return to Mr. Van Buren in private life. He was a 
model of industry and perseverance, and appears to have been an 
honorable and an upright man. After a calm survey of his whole 
political life, I cannot avoid the conclusion, that it is very question- 
able, whether he could ever have reached the office of President of 
the United States, had he acted otherwise than as he did act in his 
intercourse Avith his fellow-citizens. If he has constantly appeared 
in public life, and often in private life, in an artful disguise, that 
artful disguise was, in all human probability, absolutely necessary 
to political success. We have seen by his conduct in the New York 
convention, that his political position enabled him to do a great deal 
of good on that occasion, and it is more than probable that his po- 
litical position enabled him to do good on other occasions. If ho 
had pursued a more open and sincere course on all occasions, he 
would probably have debarred himself from public life, and would 
have enabled men much less able to serve their country, and much 
less scrupulous whether they did so faithfully, honorably and 
uprightly, to obtain the offices which he at different times held. I 
do not wish to be understood, as doubting that Mr. Van Buren 
preferred the cause and principles of the Democratic party from 
conviction. 

It is equally certain, that his success at the bar placed him above 
the temptation of seeking official stations, from pecuniary motives. 
He was doubtless actuated by a desire to make his abilities useful 
to his country, and to send his fame down to posterity. It is but 
fair to say, that few of the leading statesmen of the party to which 
he belonged, would have risked their standing with that party by 
taking the manly, generous, humane and just course which he took 
in the New York convention. It is equally fair, however, to say, 
that very few, if any of them, could have taken such a course with 
impunity. I will here insert a quotation from Burke's reflections 
on the French revolution. The remarks of Mv. Burke were applied 
to the French legislative assembly, the principles which he incul- 
cates, however, will apply Avith equal force and propriety to the 
political organizations of the democratic party, and to the positions 
which Mr. Van Buren held in that party. Mr. Burke says : — "In 
all bodies, those who will lead, must also, in a considerable degree 
oUow, they must conform their propositions to the taste, talent and 



115 

disposition of those whom they wisli to conduct ; therefore, if an 
assembly is viciously or feebly composed, in a very great part of it, 
nothing but such a supreme degree of virtue, as very rarely appears 
in the world, and for that reason cannot enter into calculation, will 
prevent the men of talents, disseminated through it, from becoming 
only the expert instruments of absurd projects. If what is the 
more likely event, instead of that unusual degree of virtue, they 
should be actuated by sinister ambition and a lust of mcritricious 
glory. Then the feeble part of the assembly, to whom, at first, 
they conform, becomes in its turn, the dupo ajid instrument of their 
designs. In this political traffic, the leaders will be obliged to bow 
to tlie ignorance of their followers, and the followers to become sub- 
servient to the worst designs of their leaders." Although, I hope 
my rea<lers will acf|uit Mr. Van Duron of some of the sinister mo- , 
tives, predicted by Mr. Lurkc, 1 cannot venture to ask them to say n 
that he, as a public man, possessed that supremo degree of virtue U 
which very rarely appears in the world. Silas Wright was proba- 
bly more distinguished for integrity and disinterestedness, as a poli- 
tician, than any of the great leaders of the party, which supported 
Mr. Van Buren. And yet, it is impossible for any acute mind to 
read the speeches of Mr. Wright, without being convinced that 
he perpetually wore a mask in his intercourse with the world as a 
statesman and as a politician. It is absolutely painful and distress- 
ing for an open-minded man to contemplate the patient, self-posses- 
sion, with which he habitually disguised his thoughts as a statesman 
and as a politician. 

I have never met with any evidence that would impugn in the 
slightest degree the assertions of his friends that he was an upright 
man in his intercourse with society in private life ; attempts have 
been made, however, by his friends, to represent him as an equally 
upright man in public life ; and it was even asserted that Mr. Clay, 
after the death of Mr. Wright, conceded to him uncompromising 
integrity as a public man. This concession of Mr. Clay was, doubt- 
less, correct as the world goes ; yet, after taking an unbiassed and 
philosophic view of the conduct of Mr. Wright as a politician and 
as a statesman, I am compelled to say that the historian who shall 
attempt to represent him as a man of uncompromising and unbend- 
ing integrity as a statesman and as a politician, will bo compelled to 
draw largely on the philosophy of Burke and of Gibbon. Ilis habit 
of disguising his thoughts, as a politician and as a statesman, was 



116 

so interwoven with his mind, that ho could not lay it aside even when 
he was evidently advocating measures in the support of which his 
judgment fully concurred, and on which he could express his thoughts 
with entire freedom and perfect impunity, and even with a firm 
assurance of popular approbation, and official approbation, and the 
approbation of the party organization to which he belonged. 

The caution and discretion which Mr. "Wright uniformly displayed 
were necessary to enable him to obtain and retain the confidence of 
Mr. Van Buren. Mr. Wright possessed a comprehensive and states- 
manlike mind, and was one of the most acute and logical reasoners 
in the United States Senate. He evidently thoroughly examined 
the questions which he discussed, and was very cautious and accurate 
in his statements. I observed, during the administration of Mr. Van 
Buren, that he evidently regarded that portion of his followers with 
the greatest favor who were evidently sincere in their expressions of 
admiration for his abilities and other good qualities, whether real or 
imaginary. Artful hypocrites were evidently not favorites with him ; 
unless when they had been on terms of the most intimate personal, 
as well as political association with him. Messrs. Wright and But- 
ler were his most intimate personal and political friends; they 
received and deserved his confidence, and yet they were both (laying 
aside French politeness and speaking in plain English) artful and 
consummate hypocrites. It is quite probable that they preferred 
Mr. Van Buren and his measures to the men and measures of his 
adversaries, from conviction. It is nevertheless certain, however^ 
that they were artful and consummate hypocrites. 

Although Mr. Van Buren's mind is of an eminently reflective 
character, I am persuaded he condemned the artful and hypocritical 
portion of his followers without due reflection. Had the democratic 
party and Gen. Jackson applied the same rule to himself, which he 
appeared disposed to apply to others, he never could have become 
President of the United States. 

I have received information from an authentic source that the 
wife and ancestors of Mr. Van Buren were all baptized in the Dutch 
Reformed church. His wife subsequently became a member of the 
Bresbytcrian church ; but IMr. Van Buren and his wife attended the 
Dutch Reformed church when their residence made it convenient to 
do so ; when that was not the case, Mr. Van Buren was in the habit 
of attending the Presbyterian and Episcopal churches. Although 
not ricli his circumstances are entirely independent; and he has, 



117 

since his retirement from the Presidency, spent in agricultural anJ 
other improvements and in the expenses of living, the whole of his 
annual income, but taken care not to encroach upon the capital. 
He did not acquire any portion of his property by marriage or inher- 
itance in any form. His father gave his farm to a younger brother 
■who remained with him, and the subject of this biography approved 
of that arrangement. He appears to have acquired his property as 
successful lawyers generally do in the United States, partly by indus- 
try, partly by good fortune, and partly by good management. I 
have now finished the character of a great man, amiable and excellent 
in private life, and fully equal to the average of the great men of his 
day in political morality. And if any portion of the people are 
disposed to say that the character of Mr. Van Buren would have 
been more agreeable to them if he had uniformly exhibited noble and 
generous sentiments, and a more manly and ardent desire to advance 
the cause of morality, justice and good government on all occasions 
and under all circumstances; I can assure such people that the 
writer of this biography is no less ardent in his love and admiration 
of such qualities than they are; yet I can make many alloAvances 
for the frailties of our nature. And, although I cannot hold up the 
public character of Mr. Van Buren as a model to imitate ; yet, 
among frail and erring mortals, even in his capacity as a statesman 
he has shown himself, on several important occasions, not to be 
wholly unworthy of our love and admiration. If Mr. Van Buren, 
in a judicial capacity, had exhibited pliability I never would have 
asked any other meed for him, except the detestation and abhorrence 
of mankind. The union of judicial integrity with pliability, in pol- 
itics has been very common, both in England and in the United 
States, and it would be very unfortunate for the people if it were 
otherwise ; for there is no present prospect of amending the political 
ductility of our statesmen, who are nearly all lawyers ; and were it 
not a point of honor with them, never to bo violated under any cir- 
cumstances, to discharge their judicial functions with unbending 
integrity, we should be reduced to a hopeless situation indeed. 

In personal appearance Mr. Van Buren is about the middle size, 
his figure is graceful, his eye keen, and the general expression of 
his countenance is intelligent, dignified and agreeable. His amiable 
placidity of temper and admirable self-possession, have enabled him 
to pass through his professional and senatorial career, almost with- 
out personal brawls and wrangling. I am not aware that Mr. Van 



118 

Buren has ever, on his side, engaged in a personal brawl or wrangle, 
either at the bar or in the Senate. lie must, however, have received 
many provocations to such encounters. It is more than probable 
that he never gave way to such a propensity on his side. 

Since the election of Gen. Pierce, I presume I may venture to 
say that I have witnessed the rise and progress of the military glory 
principle from its cradle to, I trust, its grave. Gen. Jackson was, 
unquestionably, the first of our Presidents who was elevated to that 
office by his military glory alone, whatever may be thought of the 
wisdom of his measures or the practical results of his administration. 
It is very certain he never would have been brought out by our 
leading statesmen and political managers as a candidate for the 
Presidency in the usual way, had it not been previously ascertained 
in a species of scrub race for the Presidency, that he would be a 
much more available candidate than any of the civilians. Gen. 
Washington, on the contrary, although a soldier, and a popular and 
successful soldier, possessed in a more remarkable degree than any 
statesman of his day, the confidence of the great, upright, patriotic 
and able statesmen of his time, and he deserved that confidence. Al- 
though many able statesmen were finally among the political support- 
ers of Gen. Jackson, few of them would be justly entitled to the other 
characteristics which I have just conceded to that class of men who 
were the supporters of Gen. Washington. The high-toned public 
morality which characterized the administration of Gen. Washington 
was nearly lost under the administration of Gen. Jackson. 

It is now tolerably clear that the people, or rather the politicians 
are but little disposed to favor military men ; that lukewarmness ia 
probably caused by the discovery, now as clear as the sun at noon- 
day, that military men seldom serve, except with a view to office 
and popularity with the people. Now, inasmuch as nearly all the 
political managers are office hunters, they look with a feeling of 
jealousy on military men ; because their military services point them 
out at all times clearly as aspirants for office. The office hunters 
are not disposed to pay much attention to the military merits of their 
rivals. Their military scrvics point them out clearly as office hunters, 
and the office hunters are not to be moved a whit more by the mil- 
itary merits of their rivals, than by the civil merits of their rivals ; 
indeed, with a vast majority of office-hunters there is too much 
reason to fear that genuine merit would prove only a stronger in- 
centive to the destruction of a political aspirant. 



I shall now proceed to suggest a course of education for the 
masses of the people, which I bcUevc,'or at least liopo, will, if adopted, 
raise an educated democracy, possessing the virtues, without tho 
vices, of a rich and educated aristocracy. I will premise, that if a 
limited monarchy were even desirable, it is no longer possible in 
the United States. The able statesmen of all parties are now 
convinced that we have passed the Rubicon, and taken our chances 
irrevocably, for better or for worse, with the masses of the people. 
If our liberties shall be lost, the previous history of mankind has 
shown that we cannot regain a limited monarchy, but must inevita- 
bly run into an absolute despotism, to be preceded, perhaps, by an- 
archy and confusion. 

Although greater numbers of tho people now receive primary 
educations, than received primary educations at tho time of the 
Revolution, and for several years after it, yet those primary educa- 
tions are seldom sufficiently thorough, even for primary educations. 
It is a great mistake, however, to suppose that primary educations, 
even when they are thorough and good ones, are sulFicient to make 
the great masses of the people sufficiently intelligent, to enable 
them to form an enlightened, moral, honorable, just and magnani- 
mous public opinion, and to exercise the elective franchise with 
prudence and skill. Reading, writing, arithmetic and Eno-lish 
grammar, would now be considered a good primary education; and, 
if well learned, a thorough primary education. 

I will suggest a course of education, not because I suppose it to 
be the most perfect that can be adopted, but because I believe it 
will be a decided improvement on the course at present pursued • 
and inasmuch as it is impossible for any one man to acquire an 
extensive knowledge of many branches, it may be the means of 
inducing men who have acfjuircd a thorough mastery of particular 
branches, to indicate works on those branches, and make suggestions 
on those branches, that will, I am fully persuaded, greatly facilitate 
the educations of the people, I shall mention works on some of 
the branches referred to, leaving it to others to make further sug- 
gestions of works on the same branches. On some of the branches 
which I shall recommend to be taught, although I am sufficiently 
informed to be thoroughly satisfied of the great practical value of 
those branches, I have read so little on them, that I shall leave 
it to others to designate the works to be read on those branches. 

After boys and girls have been taught to read and write, they 



120 

should be tauglit English grammar and arithmetic thoroughly. 
Particular pains should bo taken to instruct them thoroughly in the 
multiplication table. They should first be taught to multiply by 
each figure, in the regular way, and should then be drilled back- 
wards and forwards through that figure, until it is evidently impos- 
sible for them to make a mistake in it. The same course should bo 
pursued through each figure, until the whole multiplication table is 
learned. They should then be drilled backwards, and forwards, 
and promiscuously through the whole multiplication table, until it 
is absolutely certain that they cannot make a mistake in it. When 
the multiplication table is once thoroughly learned, it will never be 
forgotten. They ought to be thoroughly drilled in spelling, also, 
by making them write the words. It will save them a good deal 
of future mortification, if this course is pursued. 

After the multiplication table is once learned, it will be an easy 
task to teach them the simple rules, and probably the difficult rules 
of arithmetic. It is useless to attempt to teach mathematics to the 
great mass of minds. A faculty for mathematics, it is now well 
known, is quite as rare as a faculty for poetry ; and although some 
individuals may occasionally be found, who have finally exhibited a 
capacity for mathematics, who did not at first evince an aptitude 
for that science, such cases are rare, and the general rule will be 
found as I have stated it to be. 

After acquiring the branches already suggested, if the scholars 
have reached the age of puberty, they should read in the order I 
shall mention — first, a good work on physiology. Second, a good 
work on chemistry. Third, a good work on geology. Fourth, some 
work that would give them correct general ideas on the subject of 
astronomy; inasmuch as that science has but little to do with the 
practical affairs of life, a very moderate amount of information on 
the subject, will be sufficient for the great mass. Fifth a good work 
on geography should be read, but not committed to memory. Tiic 
scholars, in their future intercourse with the world, and by reading 
newspapers and other documents, will acquire a much more thorough 
knowledge of geography, than they would have acquired at that 
early period in life, by long and painful committals to memory. It 
would be a useless waste of time to make the scholars commit 
geography to memory. They will appreciate such information 
more highly, when they afterwards read it, and hear it in their 
intercourse with the world, and remember it better. Sixth, a good 



121 

work on natural history. Seventh, a good work on ornithology. 
Eighth, a good work on domestic economy. Ninth, An Inquiry 
int'o the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, by Adam 
Smith. This is a work of great value to the statesman, and of 
inestimable value to every intelligent man and woman, old and 
young, in the every day business of life. Raguet on Banking, &c. 
is another work of great value to the statesman, and will prove use- 
ful and instructive to the community at large, on the ordmary 
business of life. Tenth, a good history of the United States should 
be read. Eleventh, Duncan's Logic. This work, if it does not 
improve the reasoning powers, is at least well calculated to give 
just ideas of style and reasoning. It is not necessary that all the 
works and branches suggested should be studied at school. 

After leaving school, the scholars should read Gibbon's Decline 
and Fall of the Roman Empire. Second, M'Cauley's History of 
England. Third, M'Cauley's Miscellanies. This work is particu- 
larly instructive, for the scientific manner in which the author 
measures the intellects of great men. It also contains a large 
amount of useful general information on many subjects. Black- 
stone's Commentaries. Starkie on Evidence will improve the rea- 
soning powers, and give just ideas of the weight of evidence. 
Starkie on Slander. Chitty's Criminal Law ; and Bussel's Criminal 
Evidence. The student who reads the aforesaid legal works, will 
have an extensive, and almost a thorough knowledge of the crimi- 
nal law. The student who reads Starkie on Slander, will have a 
knowledge of the law of slander, and of the law of libel, sufficiently 
thorough, when read in connexion with the other legal works already 
suo-o-ested, to know how to conduct himself with prudence and safety 
as a speaker or writer ; at least, any additional information which 
ho might need on those topics, could be acquired in an hour, by 
consulting a well read lawyer, Avho should be made aware that he 
had read the aforesaid legal ,works. 

Story on the Constitution, contains a very full legal history of 
the State governments, and of the government of the United 
States. Every politician should read it. A man, however, who 
wishes to acquire a knowledge of constitutional law, on which reli- 
ance is to be placed, should read Peter's condensed reports and 
Peter's reports of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United 
States. The legal works which I have already suggested, although 
essential parts of a lawyer's education, have only been mentioned. 



122 

because every citizen, whether hiwyer or layman, should read them. 
They will give the minds of those who read them, much more just 
and appropriate ideas of their rights and duties as citizens, than 
they would otherwise possess. If the great masses of the people of 
the United States, receive such an education as I have suggested, 
80 far as their capacities will enable them to acquire a knowledge of 
the subjects enumerated, it will, undoubtedly, fairly test the capaci- 
ties of numerical majorities for self-government. 

It will be alleged by some, that but few people are capable of 
acquiring any useful amount of knowledge, on many of the branches 
suggested. A large number of the people, however, will be found 
capable of acquiring an amount of knowledge by the course of edu- 
cation suggested, such as must inevitably enable them, powerfully, 
to influence and enlighten the minds of the masses, and very few of 
the masses will be found who will not, themselves, derive a consid- 
erable share of useful information and intelligence from such an 
education. One thing is quite certain, that if such a course of ed- 
ucation does not enable the masses to acquire a sufficient share of 
intelligence to govern the country with wisdom, all hope of govern- 
ing mankind in a just, intelligent and rational manner, by universal 
suffrage and numerical majorities, will be at an end. The education 
which I have suggested, although, a very comprehensive one, on 
most of the branches suggested, would be found but a primary edu- 
cation. It, however, would be found to enlighten the mind suffi- 
ciently, to enable the student to pursue his future researches in an 
intelligible manner. 

It is impossible for any man to acquire an extensive knowledge 
of all sciences, or even of many sciences. The student, however, 
ardent and able he may be, will generally have to content himself 
with a comprehensive and thorough knowledge of one science, and 
a slight general knowledge of the others. It may be proper to in- 
form the reader, that the educations acquired at the best colleges in 
the United States, are only primary educations, and that it will re- 
quire ten, or perhaps twenty years of judiciously directed study, to 
acquire a thorough mastery of almost any one of the sciences or 
professions. The Socialists in England, are now practically adopt- 
ing a system of education for the masses, very similar, I presume, 
to that which I have suggested. They are in the habit of instruct- 
ing boys and girls in domestic economy, and other useful scientific 
knowledge, and they allege, that the scholars understand, relish and 



123 

highly appreciate the knowledge thus obtained. They perceive the 
practical utility of the knowledge thus obtained in the every day 
business of life, and they evince a zeal in searching for useful prac- 
tical knowledge, and an aptitude in acquiring it, such as scholars 
seldom, if ever, exhibit, in acquiring mere scholastic learning. The 
system has been sufficiently tested in London, by private enterprizc, 
to show that boys and girls, at least, after they have reached the 
age of puberty, are fully capable of appreciating, understanding 
and profiting by such knowledge. The avowed object of the Social- 
ists is to qualify the masses of the people by such an education, for 
universal suffrage. 

Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution, is a very superior 
work on government, and will prove instructive and useful to every 
citizen and every statesman, who really desires useful information 
on the subject of government. Garland's Life of John Randolph, 
will prove instructive to every American politician. Plutarch's 
Lives is an interesting work, admirably calculated to foster great- 
ness of soul in statesmen and heroes. For the benefit of such as 
wish to acquire a knowledge of standard literature, I will mention 
some works. Shakespeare's Plays. I remember reading a work 
entitled Elegant Extracts, which contained a very large collection 
of the choicest English Poetry and literature. It will be well 
worthy of the perusal of all who desire to acquire a graceful and 
beautiful stylo. And all who really possess literary tastes, will find 
it an exquisite luxury. Goldsmith's History of Greece, and Gold- 
smith's History of Rome, will prove useful and instructive works. 
Every intelligent man and woman should read Beck's medical juris- 
prudence. The four British Reviews, and Blackwood's Edinburgh 
Magazine, are very interesting and instructive periodicals. ^ They 
will keep the reader better posted up with regard to the politics of 
Great Britain, and of all the rest of the world, with the exception 
of the United States, than any newspapers or periodicals that I am 
acquainted with. They will also make the reader, who has not had 
a thorough classical education, better informed with regard to an- 
cient literature than any other sources. They will also make the 
reader more extensively informed, with regard to modern literature 
than any other sources. They will keep the reader better informed 
with regard to modern discoveries in science and advances in civili- 
zation throughout the whole world, than any other source^. Indeed, 
they will give him a more thorough geographical knowledge of tbc 



124 

world, and of the state of mankind in every part of the world, than 
he can possibly find condensed into readable dimensions in other 
works. They will prove judiciously, selected, intellectual, labor- 
savino- machines, and most instructive directories in the selection 
of reiding matter to the student, the professional man, the man 
of business and the citizen. They uniformly maintain a very high 
moral tone, and a most decorous and becoming tone on religious 
subjects. The articles, almost without exception, are written with 
so much ability, and are of so interesting and instructive a charac- 
ter, that they will powerfully influence for good, even tho very 
ablest minds that may peruse them. 

If the Ensiilish Eeviews cannot counteract and banish from fami- 
lies, where they are introduced, the miserable demoralizing novels 
and love stories, now so fashionable, by aftbrding more interesting 
reading of an unexceptionably pure character, I do not know any 
influence likely to accomplish that desirable object. I have only 
mentioned the titles of a small number of works, but they are all 
works of great value, and I will here urge, that it is almost a waste 
of time to read books, unlesss the reader has the advice of some 
person of experience and discrimination, to direct him in the choice 
of those books. There are so many books that a man may spend a 
life-time in reading, and if that reading is not judiciously selected, 
he will acquire but little useful information. There are thousands 
of volumes of miscellaneous reading, and a man can read only a 
few hundred volumes in a lifetime. If some one possessing dis- 
crimination and extensive reading, does not direct his course, he 
will probably search in a confused labyrinth, and waste or misapply 
a large portion of his time. Men who do not know how to dis- 
criminate between mediocrity intellects and great intellects are not 
suitable directors in the selection of books. The works written by 
mediocrity intellects are seldom of any value. I shall now mention 
some books for the information of the profession of the law, and I 
shall mention them in the order in which a lawyer should read them. 
Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire^ a large history of 
England; M'Cauley's history of Ei>gland should also be read; 
Duncan's Logic ; Blackstone's Commentaries; Starkie on Evidence ; 
Chitty's Criminal Law ; Roscoe's Criminal Evidence ; Starkie on 
d^lander; Comyn on Contracts; Story's Equity; Story on Part- 
* nership; Story on Bills; Story on Bailment; Story on Conflict of 
Lawa; Story ori Principal and Agent; Story on the Constitution. 



Jjawa ; btory on 

ED- 107 



125 

I have ventured to recommeml Story on Bills without having 
read it. I have read, however, all the other works that I have enu- 
merated or named. Judge Story evinced great learning, ability, 
and accuracy in his decisions on questions of commercial law, and 
I have no doubt the young lawyer, or law student, will find his time 
well employed in reading the whole of his legal works on those sub- 
jects; indeed, I am persuaded that the whole of his legal works 
will prove useful and instructive to the profession of the law. 
Judge Story, however, wrote too much to be relied on with absolute 
certainty. The admirable learning, ability and accuracy displayed 
by him, in liis decisions as a Judge of the Supreme Court of 
the United States, on questions of commercial law, show what 
he could have done for the profession of the law, on those subjects, 
if he had written less, and taken as much pains in preparing his 
works as lord Coke did. It is probable that he calculated on living 
to the good round age of eighty, and that he would be able gradu- 
ally to amend and improve his works, until he should bring them to 
as high a degree of perfection as his capacity was capable of. 
Death, however, spoiled his calculations, if he ever made such cal- 
culations. 

Coke upon Littleton ; Bacon's Abridgment ; Fearne on Remain- 
ders; the first volume of Chitty's Pleading; Swinburne on Wills; 
Peters' Condensed Reports of the Decisions of the Supreme Court 
of the United States; Peters' Reports of the Decisions of the Su- 
preme Court of the United States; I consider Archbold's Criminal 
Pleading a work of great value on indictments, and most useful and 
instructive on the criminal law ; Beck's Medical Jurisprudence. A 
Pennsylvania lawyer should read the Reports of the Supreme Court 
of Pennsylvania, in the order in which they were published; and 
should precede the perusal of those Reports by reading Judge 
Smith's Note to the Land Laws of Pennsylvania — a work of great 
learning and ability, and of considerable extent. The extensive law 
reader will find useful law learning in Vesey, Jr. Chancery Reports; 
the decisions of lord Eldon are certainly characterized by great 
learning and accuracy. 

The law student, or lawyer, will find other works. In addition to 
those I have mentioned, instructive, useful, and even necessary. I 
have confined my reconmicndations to works whichi have read, 
(with one exception, which I have mentioned,) and of the undoubted 
value of which I am fully convinced. The Pennsylvania lawyer 



126 

should have in his library the latest Digest of the laws of Pennsyl- 
vania; and also Robert's Digest of Britisli Statutes in force in 
Pennsylvania ; this work contains statutes in force in Pennsylvania 
not to be found in the Digests of the laws of Pennsylvania. The 
Pennsylvania lawyer will find Troubat and Haly's Practice useful; 
the latest Digest of the Synopsis of the Decisions of the Supreme 
Court of Pennsylvania will also prove useful to him. 

The law student or lawyer will act wisely in the selection of other 
works, who only follows the advice of men of great learning and 
ability in the selection, who know how to disci iminate between me- 
diocrity intellects and great intellects. Young lawyers educated in 
the usual way arc apt, on a very slender amount of law reading, to 
imagine that they are well read lawyers. If they peruse the works 
which I have recommended, in the order in which I have recommen- 
ded them, they will soon discover and appreciate the vast extent of 
the law; and be able to understand the true nature and character 
of the law, and to form correct estimates of their positions as law- 
yers. It will probably be urged against my suggestions for educating 
the great masses of the people, that reading and study are extreme- 
ly irksome to the great masses of the people, and that they can- 
not be induced to read and study the works which I have suggested. 
Nearly all mankind have a natural repugnance to reading and study ; 
that natural repugnance, however, will be easily removed by two or 
three years of diligent reading. I have known reading to become, 
by two or three years diligent practice, not only a pleasure but 
absolutely a passion with minds that, at first, exhibited an almost 
uncontrolable repugnance to any thing of the sort. 










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